As federal immigration raids continue to upend life in Los Angeles, Asian-American leaders were rallying their communities to raise their voices in support of Latinos, who have been the primary targets of the enforcement sweeps, warning that neighbourhoods frequented by Asian immigrants could be next.
Organisers say many Asian immigrants have already been affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documentation.
Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders had been on indefinite hold have been detained after showing up for routine check-ins at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigration lawyers and advocacy groups.
In recent months, a number of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese immigrants whose deportation orders had been stayed in some cases for decades have been told that those orders would now be enforced.
The Asian immigrants being targeted were generally people who were convicted of a crime after arriving in the US, making them subject to deportation after their release from jail or prison. In most cases, ICE never followed through because the immigrants had lived in the US long enough that their home countries no longer recognised them as citizens.
