All posts filed under: Immigration Reform

Report Card: Year Two of the Trump Administration

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

Shortly after the elections in November, 2016, Little Laos on the Prairie responded with an article assessing possible implications for the Lao community in the coming years ahead. On January 30th, 2018, President Trump delivered his first State of the Union address following a year that was filled with many challenges from all fronts. Expectations are understandably high, because 2018 is also the year for US midterm elections, which will be hotly contested. On the line are 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of 100 seats in the United States Senate, in addition to 39 governorships among other key positions. Under a normal presidency, the President’s party, historically, loses majority control of Congress. This is not necessarily a given in 2018, but current polling suggests that Democrats may be on track to significant victories across the country in November. CNN has called Minnesota ground zero for the midterms, saying “The governor’s office, as many as five House seats and not one but two Senate seats are up for grabs.” And …

Deportations of Southeast Asian Americans: A Glaring Human Rights Issue in an Unjust Immigration System

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

This piece was also published on Reappropriate and Angry Asian Man.  Last week, war veterans, mothers, fathers, family, friends, and children held signs of pleas to stop deportations of their loved ones. Organized by family members of those detained, and supported by a coalition of API advocacy organizations, people lined the streets of Minneapolis outside Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office to demand justice after almost a dozen Cambodian Minnesotans were detained for deportation. This isn’t solely in the Cambodian community. Just last year, the story of Lao American DJ Teace aka Thisaphone Sothiphakhak was in the Minneapolis City Pages. “That’s the most frustrating feeling. I went through the court system, and literally something 18 years ago came back and made me feel like I was less than human.” History of deportations: SEARAC reported in 2015 that since 1998, about 16,000 Southeast Asian Americans from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos have been given deportation orders, the majority on the basis of past criminal convictions where time has already been served. These numbers lead us to systemic double punishment …