By Connie Chung Joe, AJSOCAL’s Former CEO
As I reflect on my final message at AJSOCAL, I’m sitting with big feelings. Immense gratitude for the opportunity to be a part of this exceptional institution. Every day, I had the honor of working alongside a passionate and brilliant staff of lawyers, experts, and advocates deeply committed to serving our communities. I’m also profoundly thankful to a top-tier board of directors whose compassion and guidance helped me learn the ropes.
I started in August 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown. I had not managed a legal service or social justice organization before, but I had a strong, unshakeable belief that more needed to be done for our AAPI communities. Whether it was responding to anti-Asian hate, supporting victims from the Monterey Park Lunar New Year Shootings, or protecting immigrants from detention or deportation, the work was urgent and essential.
My expertise grew – about language access, voting rights, policy and advocacy, impact litigation, data disaggregation, eviction defense, health access, immigration law, family law, and so much more. AJSOCAL’s work was constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients and communities. The journey has been an incredible privilege.
And now that Southern California is ground zero for the fight for immigrants and social justice, AJSOCAL’s work is more critical than ever. I am grateful to the executive team and our interim CEO Aileen Louie for stepping in to lead our team –keeping our fierce momentum strong.
For those of you who don’t know, we provide direct services to over 11,000 clients a year with immigration being our largest body of legal work. Our clients are twice as likely to speak an Asian language than they are English and nearly 90% earn less than a living wage. Whether they are seeking citizenship, defense against detention or deportation, a U visa as a domestic violence victim, or calling our language helpline for guidance, immigrants are at the heart of what we do.
Anti-Immigrant Hate is Anti-Asian Hate
Many of you stepped up after the Atlanta spa shootings – with donations, messages of solidarity and powerful acts of support. You expressed heartbreak and outrage whenever you heard someone yell “Go back to your country” at an Asian American. That pain and fear are still with us, as racism and xenophobia are so intertwined.
Six out of ten Asian Americans are foreign-born, and the vast majority of us come from immigrant households, so the immigration raids in LA and OC are ripping families apart, forcing people into hiding, and spreading fear throughout our communities.
If you cared about Asian Americans then, you should care now.
Because as xenophobia is rising in this country, so is the hate towards Asian immigrants, who are too often seen as not trustworthy, not patriotic, not truly American. We see it with more bullying in schools, physical attacks on the streets, and racial slurs online. Racism and xenophobia are intertwined. Make no mistake – anti-immigrant hate is anti-Asian hate.
We Must Fight Back, Not Hold Back
At AJSOCAL, we know the risks of this moment. The current federal climate puts us at risk for funding cuts, heightened scrutiny and obstacles that make serving our legal clients challenging. We could stay quiet, keep our heads down, and water down our message to try and minimize those risks. But we choose instead to stay true to our mission and live our core values: Community Responsiveness, Compassion, Collaboration, and Courage.
We’re in the ring and we expect some bruises, but in the end, those of us on the side of justice will prevail. When you look back, a generation from now, at how you responded to this moment, make sure you can say you showed up. With your words. With your actions. With your dollars. Don’t hold back. The time to fight back is now.
We are in unprecedented times. The rule of law, due process, separation of powers, and other constitutional principles we hold dear are being tested and eroded, seemingly every day.
And yet, when our communities are in crisis, and the world seems at its darkest, is when AJSOCAL’s light shines brightest.