By Aileen Louie, Interim CEO
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL)
Published: Summer e2025
We have all witnessed and experienced Southern California become ground zero for an escalating federal crackdown on immigrants—and our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities are feeling the impact in devastating, often invisible, ways.
At AJSOCAL, we hear the fear from the callers to our in language helplines. We feel the desperation in our legal clinics. We see the deception used outside of courthouses. And we see a system that is failing the very people who built their lives here believing that dignity and fairness were American values.
Let’s be clear: immigration is an AAPI issue.
Nearly 60% of Asian Americans in the U.S. are foreign-born. In California, 55% of Asians are immigrants. (One)1 in 7 Asian immigrants is undocumented. We are not on the sidelines of this crisis—we are living it.
This Is What the Crackdown Looks Like
Since early June, the federal administration has waged an unprecedented campaign of raids, arrests, and detentions across Los Angeles and Orange County:
- In Koreatown, Chinatown, and the Fashion District, workers are disappearing.
- In Little Saigon, ICE swept neighborhoods, leaving children afraid to return to school.
- At LAX, green card holders from AAPI-majority countries have been detained upon lawful re-entry.
- Across our cities, immigrants are being detained at citizenship interviews, green card appointments, and immigration court hearings—including domestic violence and human trafficking survivors .
From what our lawyers are seeing, migration patterns differ widely across ethnic groups. And while these are generalizations, these are examples of how complex immigration is for our communities.
Prior to the southern borders closing, refugees from Chinese and India sought asylum at the border which was a relatively new migration route for these populations. For those who made it into the U.S. and have been here for less than two years, they are now vulnerable. Koreans and Filipino undocumented immigrants have often overstayed their temporary visas and live quietly in fear. Family-based immigration is no longer a safe process to endure because of the arrests being made during routine interviews and check-ins. Southeast and South Asian refugees are too often targeted for past criminal records tied to refugee trauma.
There’s no single story. That’s why a one-size-fits-all approach to immigrant justice fails immigrant communities—including (especially with) AAPIs.
The AAPI Immigration Experience: Real but Invisible
Immigration enforcement doesn’t look the same for everyone.
For many AAPI immigrants, there are no workplace raids or mass roundups. Instead, enforcement shows up quietly—at a check-in. At home. In a courtroom hallway. That makes it harder to see (some thing about news coverage/images?)—and easier to ignore.
Many of our undocumented community members entered the U.S. legally on visas, only to later fall out of status. But the stigma around speaking out runs deep. Cultural values around privacy and shame silence our stories.
This silence isn’t compliance. It’s survival.
Deportation Is a Second Punishment
Southeast Asian immigrants—many of them refugees or survivors of U.S.-fueled conflicts—are being detained and deported over decades-old convictions. These are people who served their time, rebuilt their lives, and now face permanent exile.
You can’t claim to believe in second chances while deporting people who’ve turned their lives around.
We see ICE targeting Pacific Islanders, Chinese and Indian asylum seekers, and even green card holders. Due process is being stripped away. Language barriers go unaddressed. And people are being detained without warning—often without a lawyer.
This Is Personal for Us
We’re watching our community members disappear into detention without notice or legal representation.
We’re hearing from parents whose children—U.S. citizens—cry themselves to sleep, afraid their family will be next.
And we are hearing from naturalized citizen community members that they fear facing denaturalization under vague policy changes.
How AJSOCAL Is Responding
We’ve activated our Readiness Response strategy at full scale throughout the organization:
- Live helplines–in seven Asian languages plus English and Spanish— to assist community members detained or at risk
- Legal representation for those facing ICE interviews, court appearances, and raids
- Know Your Rights resources across 11 languages and platforms (red cards and trainings?)
- Rapid response briefings for 60+ AAPI community partners
- Leading advocacy at the state level for AB 49 (California Safe Haven Schools Act) and AB 322 (California Location Privacy Act). Supporting SB 627 (No Secret Police Act) and SB 805 (Ban on Bounty Hunters)
We are also tracking and speaking out against the dangerous sharing of Medi-Cal data by federal officials—a betrayal of public trust that could deter families from seeking the care they need.
Community of Contrast to understand our community demographics and needs?
Our Communities Deserve Better
We Are Not Alone
We stand with our Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Arab, and African immigrant communities. This is a shared fight. We all have different pathways but we share purpose.
Immigrants are not the enemy. They are our family members, neighbors, coworkers, and elders. And yet, more than 200,000 people have already been detained nationwide this year—65% of them without any criminal conviction.
This isn’t about “public safety.”
It’s about political theater.
It’s about fear.
And it must stop.
What You Can Do
- Share Our Resources.
Visit ajsocal.org/immigration to download Know Your Rights materials in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and more.
- Donate.
Support our legal services and advocacy at ajsocal.org/donate. We need unrestricted funds to help the most vulnerable. Can we get a donate button here.
Speak Out.
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn , X, Tiktok, and Youtube. Use your voice to demand due process, transparency, and dignity for every immigrant—no exceptions.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) is the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to serving Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. We provide free legal services, operate helplines in 8 languages including English and Spanish, and fight for the dignity and safety of all immigrants.
Need help? Call our multilingual immigration helplines listed at www.ajsocal.org