On May 4, following the unanimous passing of the “ICE Out” legislative package by Philadelphia City Council, a series of letters were sent by the federal government to City officials demanding they turn over years worth of materials concerning “far-left” immigrant activist groups. Among the groups singled out was Asian Americans United (AAU), a community outreach group supporting people of Asian ancestry in the Philadelphia area with leadership development and immigrant justice action. Vivian Chang, AAU’s executive director, spoke with Grid about the aftermath of the “ICE Out” ruling and the coalition of more than 60 organizations that it recently joined, urging Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration to implement the legislation. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How has Asian Americans United’s summer been? Busy and crazy, because there’s been so much increased detention and secret arrests. Recently, ICE started taking people from Philadelphia International Airport, so we’ve been fielding a lot of those calls, trying to help people find their loved ones. It’s really impacting the community.
Tell us more about those secret arrests. The majority of ICE detainment cases we’ve seen in Philadelphia are people who are following what’s legally required of them as they are pursuing asylum, attending mandatory check-ins. What ICE has been doing for months and months now is taking people from those check-ins. People are just walking into ICE headquarters and not walking out.
How has Asian Americans United been assisting? We have a volunteer corps that’s at the headquarters every day, informing people as they go in. They offer resources, food and water. We’ve also been working with the Philadelphia Defenders Association, who’ve been helping us file habeas corpus petitions.
What did it feel like to see those letters from the House Judiciary Committee? It’s an intimidation tactic, one that this administration uses often. They want to get people to see our name in the news and assume we’re “anti-American” but that is not the case. Luckily, we have some great allies. It was obviously concerning for AAU, but we have good support systems within the community. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has been supporting us a lot, but there’s also a lot of support within the coalition of Philly’s immigrant activist groups, like Juntos.
Can you tell us about the coalition of over 60 immigrant activist groups Asian Americans United recently joined to demand Mayor Parker enforce the ICE Out bills? We are putting public pressure on the mayor because she hasn’t enforced the legislation properly yet. There’s huge gaps in training and understanding. The legislation requires training all City employees and that hasn’t happened yet, so if the people who are literally responsible for protecting City spaces aren’t trained in the legislation, then there’s no way to enforce it.
What are the first steps the coalition is looking for from the Parker Administration? Educating the community and making folks aware of the rights the package gives them via signs in City-owned buildings.
What are the next steps for AAU in the ICE Out fight? Just making sure it’s enforced, and keeping up the pressure to maintain that. We need the awareness that ICE is a threat and is already a presence in Philly. We also want Philadelphians to have awareness of their resources. A lot of the next steps are just about ensuring access, because a lot of people end up in really bad situations due to ICE and don’t know that there’s help out there.
