#386 4/6 Meeting; Today's Webinar; JFK Award to Twin Cities People; 3/28 "No Kings" March+

In This Issue #386

·      04/06 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·      Reminder: Webinar Today: Mass Surveillance and the ICE Crackdown: What the AAPI Community Needs to Know

·      JFK Profile in Courage Award Goes to People of Twin Cities and Fed Chair

·      03/28 “No Kings” March

·      News and Activities for the Communities

04/06 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held on Monday, April 6, 2026, starting at 1:55 pm ET.

In addition to updates from:

·       Judith Teruya, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC)

·       Joanna YangQing Derman, Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC

·       Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF)

We are honored to welcome the following distinguished speakers:

·       Eric Zheng 郑艺荣, President, American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai

·       Susan A. Thornton, Vice Chair, U.S. Heartland China Association

·       Susan Shirk, Research Professor; Director Emeritus, 21st Century China Center, University of California, San Diego

Although the Trump-Xi summit has been postponed, U.S.-China relations remain the most consequential global issue of our time — with profound implications for trade, education, international exchange, and the well-being of Chinese Americans, Asian Americans, and immigrant communities nationwide. This meeting will bring together some of the most informed voices on these issues for a timely and wide-ranging conversation.

The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. It is closed to the press. If you wish to join, either one time or for future meetings, please contact one of the co-organizers of APA Justice - Vincent Wang 王文奎 and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org.  

Reminder: Webinar Today: Mass Surveillance and the ICE Crackdown: What the AAPI Community Needs to Know

On March 24, 2026, starting at 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT, APA Justice, Asian American Advancing Justice | AAJC, Asian American Scholar Forum, and Committee of 100 will co-host a webinar on “Mass Surveillance and the ICE Crackdown: What the AAPI Community Needs to Know.”

Moderator: Michael German, Retired Fellow, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice.

Speakers:

·       Kaohly Her, Mayor, St. Paul, Minnesota.

·       Saira Hussain, Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation.

·       Xiaoxing Xi, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics, Temple University.  

·       John Yang, President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC.

REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/3N5BbEy

RESOURCES:

·       APA Justice: Timeline Visualization of U.S. Mass Surveillance

·       APA Justice: Warrantless Surveillance

Together, these four voices — a mayor, a civil liberties litigator, a wrongfully targeted scientist, and a civil rights leader — will help our community understand what is happening, why it matters, and what we can do about it.

JFK Profile in Courage Award Goes to People of Twin Cities and Fed Chair

According to The Hill, this year's John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award has been awarded jointly to the people of the Twin Cities, Minnesota and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The prestigious annual honor, awarded since 1989 by the Kennedy family, celebrates individuals and communities that demonstrate extraordinary political courage. A bipartisan panel reviews nominations and selects winners each year.

The committee recognized Minnesota residents for their response to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations earlier this year — operations that drew national condemnation after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Their recognition is particularly meaningful to the APA community, as St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her — who spoke at our March 2 APA Justice monthly meeting and today’s webinar on Mass Surveillance and the ICE Crackdown  — has been among the most visible voices standing up for immigrant communities in the Twin Cities.

"The people of the Twin Cities responded with extraordinary courage and resolve," the committee wrote. "Tens of thousands took to the streets to peacefully protest federal overreach and threats to immigrant families and constitutional protections, while others documented enforcement activity and alerted neighbors to federal agents' presence."

Read The Hill report: https://bit.ly/47MrVfw

03/28 “No Kings” March

"No Kings" is a nationwide grassroots protest movement that emerged in the United States in 2025 in opposition to what organizers describe as the authoritarian tendencies of the Trump administration. The movement's core message is simple and foundational: America has no kings, and no president is above the law.

The movement began in June 2025, when nationwide protests coincided with President Trump's birthday celebration and a military parade in Washington, D.C. marking the Army's 250th anniversary. Millions of Americans took to the streets to declare with one voice that the celebrations resembled a coronation more than a commemoration. Four months later, on October 18, 2025, over seven million Americans joined more than 2,700 events across all 50 states in a second wave of protests.

On March 28, 2026, the movement reaches a new milestone. Over 3,000 protests are scheduled nationwide — organized by Indivisible and the ACLU — with California alone hosting over 300 events. Organizers anticipate it will be the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. The March 28 protests are taking place in direct response to the escalating ICE crackdown, including the recent killings of Renée Good, Keith Porter, and Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement agents. The movement calls out the administration's targeting of immigrant families through racial profiling, warrantless arrests, and mass detention; its attacks on birthright citizenship and other constitutional rights; its gutting of healthcare, environmental protections, and education; and its economic policies that organizers say drive up costs for working families while delivering windfalls to billionaires.

For the AAPI community, Stop AAPI Hate — one of the movement's official AAPI partner organizations — has made clear that the stakes are too high to stay silent, citing violent mass deportation efforts spreading fear across immigrant communities, attacks on birthright citizenship and fundamental constitutional rights, and targeted attacks against immigrants and communities of color. Other No Kings partners with particular relevance to the AAPI community include the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), North Carolina Asian Americans Together, and Hindus for Human Rights Action, as well as broader civil society partners such as the American Association of University Professors, Stand Up for Science, and the Union of Concerned Scientists — organizations whose missions intersect directly with the racial profiling and surveillance issues APA Justice has long tracked.

All “No Kings” events are committed to nonviolent action. Protest Safety Training.is offered.  Participants are expected to act lawfully and de-escalate any potential confrontations.  Protest safely!

Visit the “No Kings” website at https://www.nokings.org/ for more information on partners, training, and events near you.

News and Activities for the Communities

1. APA Justice Community Calendar

Upcoming Events:

2026/03/24 Mass Surveillance and the ICE Crackdown: What the AAPI Community Needs to Know

2026/03/25 The Perpetual Foreigner Stereotype: New Data on Asian American Experiences

2026/03/26 Who is Allowed to be a U.S. Citizen? Defending Birthright Citizenship and the Role of Asian American History

2026/03/28 “No Kings” March

2026/04/06 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

2026/04/08 Perspectives on Careers in Arts and Entertainment

2026/04/14 Recollections, Pioneers and Heroes - Anla ChengVisit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details.

2. NPR 2026 Voter Registration Guide

Hansi Lo Wang, voting correspondent, National Public Radio (NPR), has updated the outlet's voter registration guide for the 2026 midterm primaries, covering deadlines, online registration links, and status-check tools for every U.S. state and territory. The guide required days of research due to the complexity of America's decentralized election system — registration rules, deadlines, and online availability vary widely by state, and seven states plus several territories offer no online registration at all. With USPS mail processing changes adding another wrinkle, Hansi Lo Wang advises voters not to wait until the last minute and to visit npr.org/vote to register or verify their status before their jurisdiction's deadline.

Read Hansi Lo Wang’s post Untangling the U.S.' patchwork of elections and the NPR 2026 voter registration guide: https://apps.npr.org/voter-registration-2026-mail/

3. 250 Champions of Public Service: A Celebration Worth Noting — and Building On

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and LocalGov250 have announced their 250 Champions honorees, recognizing outstanding public servants across all 50 states, Washington D.C., and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The initiative celebrates government employees who have gone above and beyond in service to their communities — from mayors and city managers to meter readers, librarians, fire chiefs, and sustainability coordinators.

"There are many leaders working in government across the country who are deserving of recognition, and this year marks an especially important time for our country to honor them," said James-Christian Blockwood, President & CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration. "These 250 Champions are truly special and make a difference in our everyday lives."

The 250 Champions will be honored at a celebration preceding the ICMA National Conference in Philadelphia on May 12, 2026.

APA Justice reviewed the full list and identified approximately 8 to 10 honorees who appear to be Asian Pacific Americans — among them Michelle Wu, Mayor of Boston and one of the most prominent AAPI elected officials in the country; Alexander Fung, Economic Development Manager in Eastvale, California; Clement Lau, Policy Advisor at the Los Angeles County Chief Sustainability Office; Kim Nakahodo, Deputy City Administrator in North Kansas City, Missouri; Sivaraman Anbarasan, Council At-Large in Franklin Township, New Jersey; and Amrinder Singh, Director of Licenses and Inspections in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania.

At roughly 3 to 4 percent of the total honorees, AAPI representation in this cohort appears to fall below the community's share of the U.S. population, which stands at approximately 6 percent — and well below the AAPI community's outsized contributions to public service at the federal, state, and local levels. This gap is worth noting not to diminish the outstanding honorees who were recognized, but to encourage greater nomination and visibility of AAPI public servants in future cycles.

Read the NAPA press release and full list of all 250 Champions: https://napawash.org/press-releases/250-public-service-champions 

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APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem that addresses racial profiling concerns and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American community.  For more information, please refer to the new APA Justice website under development at www.apajusticetaskforce.org. We value your feedback. Please send your comments to contact@apajustice.org.