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发帖数: 7881 | 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/these-first-generation-
chinese-americans-are-loudly-opposing-sanctuary-laws/2017/03/17/92728e94-
09db-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.c72b328e097d#comments
These first-generation Chinese Americans are vigorously opposing sanctuary
laws
Hongling Zhou came to Maryland for a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University
and then waited 14 years to become a U.S. citizen.
“It was not easy, but we did it with dignity,” she told a Maryland state
senate committee last month. Zhou, a mother of two Howard County
schoolchildren and statistician for a federal agency, said that’s the way
immigrants should come to America.
“Everybody should follow the law of the land,” Zhou said. “Nobody should
be above the law.”
As state and local lawmakers in Maryland consider proposals to protect
undocumented immigrants by limiting cooperation with federal authorities,
some of the most persistent and passionate voices in opposition have been
Chinese American.
Organized under the banners of groups such as the Maryland Chinese American
Network and the Asian American GOP Coalition, they have testified by the
dozens against the Maryland Trust Act, which would bar the use of state and
local funds to aid federal immigration enforcement. It would also prohibit
police from asking about immigration status during traffic stops or other
activities.
Sen. Susan Lee (D-Montgomery) got into a heated discussion with Chinese
American activists recently over an immigrant-protection bill she helped
sponsor. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Of the 32 speakers opposed to the bill at last month’s state House
Judiciary Committee hearing, 27 were Chinese Americans. They turned out in
similar numbers at a marathon Rockville City Council session on March 6,
speaking against a bill that would codify existing policies barring police
from enforcing federal immigration law. The same groups organized to fight a
similar measure that narrowly passed the Howard County Council in February
before it was vetoed by County Executive Allan H. Kittleman (R).
It is an unusual burst of activism from a community of mostly first-
generation immigrants, concentrated in Montgomery and Howard counties, who
otherwise have largely avoided engagement with local issues. And it is
activism that places them at odds with the stance of more traditional Asian
American advocacy groups.
Leaders of the movement say President Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda
has resonated with at least a segment of the roughly 60,000 Chinese
Americans in the Maryland suburbs. They depict undocumented immigrants as a
source of increased crime — a claim not supported by local or national data
— and a financial drain on schools. The prospect of enhanced protection
for those here illegally seems to offend this particular group of immigrants
at a core level.
Hong Chen told Rockville council members that he traveled to Canada rather
than remain in the country illegally when his visa expired in 1996. He was
able to return when his wife received an H-1B visa, designed for foreign
workers with specialized skills.
“Local government should not pick and choose which laws to enforce,” said
Chen, 55, who lives in Potomac and manages a dental office.
How sanctuary cities are responding to Trump’s threat to defund them Play
Video2:35
President Trump has threatened to go after sanctuary cities, which provide
protections for illegal immigrants. This how state and local governments
with sanctuary policies are responding to possible action. (Claritza Jimenez
/The Washington Post)
The advocates’ outspoken stance has placed them at odds with the mainstream
of Asian American civil rights groups and elected leaders, who generally
support “sanctuary” communities and a path to citizenship for undocumented
immigrants.
They say the Asian American groups in Maryland have been blinded to the
struggles of others by their comfortable existence in two of the country’s
wealthiest counties, supported by advanced degrees and business success.
“Right now, sitting in the luxury of our own homes, it’s easy to frame
this in the context of ‘us’ (the Asian American community) and ‘them’ (
predominantly the Latino community, but others as well),” state Del.
Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard), one of 78 House co-sponsors of the Trust Act,
wrote in an open letter to constituents last month. “This is easy to do
because most of the undocumented people we see locally in Maryland are
Latinos.”
Lam, a physician and son of Chinese immigrants, said the national data
should actually be a wake-up call: Asian Americans are the fastest-growing
part of the undocumented population, totaling 1.5 million of the estimated
11 million who have entered the country illegally.
“While ‘they’ are not ‘us’ right now, we could soon be ‘them,’
” Lam wrote. “The outpouring of animosity and anger that we’re seeing now
. . . could continue to turn towards us.”
State Sen. Susan C. Lee (D-Montgomery), a second-generation Chinese
immigrant and Trust Act co-sponsor, confronted the activists in Annapolis on
Feb. 21, shortly before a hearing on the bill, which is now before a
legislative working group that is discussing possible amendments.
“You are Chinese immigrants? You are against this bill? Where is your heart
?” Lee said, according to Zhou and Cheng Tu, advocacy director for the
Maryland Chinese American Network, both of whom had come to the hearing.
The discussion grew so heated that the Chinese American delegation was asked
to leave the hearing room, Zhou and Tu said. They were allowed back later
to testify.
“I am totally fine that she feels strongly about this,” said Tu, who came
to Maryland from Hangzhou in 1995 to study engineering. “I am not fine that
she tried to discourage people in the community who have different opinions
.”
Lee said there was no attempt to discourage their testimony and that she
only expressed surprise at their presence. “I thought we left as friends,”
she said. “I was glad and proud that they came.”
Janelle Wong, director of the Asian American Studies Program and professor
of American Studies at the University of Maryland, said the Montgomery-
Howard group is a “a small, vocal opposition to immigrant rights” that
does not represent the entire community.
“Part of the problem is that Asian Americans are not mobilized around many
issues by political parties or candidates. So they’re highly visible when
they do get involved,” said Wong, who conducted a survey with two
University of California at Los Angeles political scientists after the 2016
election that showed 16 percent of Asian Americans think undocumented
immigrants should be immediately deported.
Age and life-experience may be drivers of the debate, some experts said.
Many of the activists came to the United States 20 to 30 years ago and may
be less familiar with the long history of laws that virtually banned all
Chinese immigration — and naturalization of those already here — from the
1880s through the 1940s.
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“They have had a harder time understanding some of the experiences of
undocumented immigrants within a larger civil rights context,” said Kham
Moua, senior manager of policy and communications for OCA–Asian Pacific
American Advocates.
The Chinese American advocates said they first mobilized politically on
issues involving schools. In early 2016, parents gathered signatures to name
a new Clarksburg-Damascus middle school after Alan Cheung, the first Asian
American elected to the Montgomery Board of Education. The board ultimately
named the school for Clarksburg philanthropist Hallie Wells.
Last summer, a Montgomery Chinese parents’ group challenged a school system
report that included recommendations for increased diversity in gifted and
talented programs by changing admissions policies. Asian American students
are overrepresented in the programs compared to their share of the district
’s enrollment (14 percent). The school system has not yet acted on the
portion of the report covering diversity issues.
Tu said his group intends to stay in the local arena, and is considering
formation of a political action committee for the 2018 election cycle.
“I want to be a full American,” he said. | b********r
发帖数: 620 | 2 5哥，你牵头开一个。
University
【在 b**********5 的大作中提到】
: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/these-first-generation-
: chinese-americans-are-loudly-opposing-sanctuary-laws/2017/03/17/92728e94-
: 09db-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.c72b328e097d#comments
: These first-generation Chinese Americans are vigorously opposing sanctuary
: laws
: Hongling Zhou came to Maryland for a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University
: and then waited 14 years to become a U.S. citizen.
: “It was not easy, but we did it with dignity,” she told a Maryland state
: senate committee last month. Zhou, a mother of two Howard County
: schoolchildren and statistician for a federal agency, said that’s the way
| S*******D
发帖数: 12188 | 3 瞎几把折腾
University
【在 b**********5 的大作中提到】
: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/these-first-generation-
: chinese-americans-are-loudly-opposing-sanctuary-laws/2017/03/17/92728e94-
: 09db-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.c72b328e097d#comments
: These first-generation Chinese Americans are vigorously opposing sanctuary
: laws
: Hongling Zhou came to Maryland for a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University
: and then waited 14 years to become a U.S. citizen.
: “It was not easy, but we did it with dignity,” she told a Maryland state
: senate committee last month. Zhou, a mother of two Howard County
: schoolchildren and statistician for a federal agency, said that’s the way
|
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