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#307 2/3 Meeting; Birthright Citizenship Campaigns; Section 702 of FISA Ruling; 1/6 Summary

In This Issue #307

 

·       2025/02/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

·       Nationwide Mobilization to Defend Birthright Citizenship

·       Cato: Federal Court Rules FISA Section 702 “Back Door” Searches Unconstitutional

·       2025/01/06 APA Justice Monthly Meeting Summary Posted

·       News and Activities for the Communities

 

 

2025/02/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

 

The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, February 3, 2025, starting at 1:55 pm ET. In addition to updates by Judith Teruya, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Joanna YangQing Derman, Program Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC, and Kai Li 李凯, Vice President, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), confirmed speakers are:

 

·       Gary Locke 骆家辉, Chair, Committee of 100; former U.S. Ambassador to China; former U/S. Secretary of Commerce; former Governor of the State of Washington 

·       Julia Chang Bloch 張之香, Founder and Executive Chair, US-China Education Trust; former U.S. Ambassador

·       Bethany Li, Executive Director, Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund (AALDEF)

·       Scott Chang, Senior Counsel, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)

 

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 - Steven Pei 白先慎Vincent Wang 王文奎, and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org.

 

 


 

Nationwide Mobilization to Defend Birthright Citizenship

 

 

ACLU and Stop AAPI Hate have launched campaigns calling on the public to urge Congress to protect birthright citizenship after President Donald Trump issued an executive order seeking to deny citizenship to countless children and babies born in the U.S.

 

·       Join the ACLU campaign: https://bit.ly/3PLukO7

·       Join the Stop AAPI Hate campaign: https://bit.ly/3PMApKc

 

The United States is a nation founded and built by immigrants. While some were brought here against their will, others arrived in pursuit of the American Dream or for various other reasons.Birthright citizenship is firmly rooted in the U.S. Constitution through the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals born on American soil, a principle upheld by Supreme Court rulings like United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898). It provides legal certainty and equality, ensuring that all children born in the U.S. have equal status regardless of their parents’ origins or immigration status, preventing statelessness and promoting fairness. It has been a cornerstone of American society since 1868, fostering national unity, social stability, and a clear, inclusive pathway to citizenship in a nation built by immigrants.On January 21, 2025, the case CASA v. Trump, docket number 8:25-cv-00201-DLB, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The plaintiff, CASA, Inc., a nonprofit organization, challenges the Trump administration's executive order concerning birthright citizenship.  Read the CASA announcement: https://bit.ly/4azYPQJ.  This is the fourth known lawsuit on the executive order:

 

·       2025/01/20 New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support v. Trump (1:25-cv-00038) https://bit.ly/40sjdhU 

·       2025/01/20 Doe v. Trump (1:25-cv-10136) https://bit.ly/40tjtNI

·       2025/02/21 State of Washington et al v. Trump et al (2:25-cv-00127) https://bit.ly/3PPcee8

·       2025/02/21 CASA Inc. et al v. Trump et al (8:25-cv-00201) https://bit.ly/4aG6nBG

 

According to APNew York TimesWashington Post, and other media reports, on January 23, 2025, a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order, dealing the president his first setback as he attempts to upend the nation’s immigration laws and reverse decades of precedent.  In a hearing held three days after Trump issued his executive order, Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided at least for the moment with four states in State of Washington et al v. Trump et al (2:25-cv-00127). “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said.  “Frankly,” he continued, challenging Trump administration lawyers, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.”The decision applies nationwide and prevents the Trump administration from taking steps to implement the executive order for 14 days. In the meantime, the parties will submit further arguments about the merits of Trump’s order. Judge Coughenour scheduled a hearing on February 6 to decide whether to block it long term as the case proceeds.On January 24, 2025, the Committee of 100 issued a public statement on President Trump’s executive order.  “This Executive Order is a blatant attack on a fundamental constitutional right—a right upheld by the landmark case of a son of Chinese immigrants, United States v. Wong Kim Ark,” said Cindy Tsai, Interim President, Committee of 100. “For generations, the Chinese American community has faced exclusionary policies, systemic racism, and violence, despite generations of contributions to this nation. Revoking birthright citizenship represents a troubling return to discriminatory practices, disturbing settled law, and decades of progress toward inclusivity. Targeting this right is an assault on the core American values of liberty and equality. The Committee of 100 stands firmly in solidarity with all communities impacted by this unjust and divisive policy.”"President Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship is an affront to the core principles of equality and opportunity that have guided this nation for generations," said Stewart Kwoh, Co-Founder of The Asian American Education Project and Committee of 100 Member since 1999.  "As educators, we know firsthand how the fear and uncertainty created by such policies harm our students and their families, particularly in immigrant communities. This order threatens to marginalize and disenfranchise children born on U.S. soil, many of whom belong to the AAPI community, and it risks undoing the progress we've made toward a more inclusive and equitable society."

 

On January 24, 2025, San Francisco District Attorney David Chiu joined a dozen community leaders, local experts and historians at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) to reflect on the community’s history of fighting discriminatory immigration policies.  CCBA, also known as the Chinese Six Companies, was founded in 1882 as a coalition of associations by immigrants with shared roots in southern China. It raised funds and hired prominent lawyers to bring Wong Kim Ark’s case to the Supreme Court.“Donald Trump has repeatedly and blatantly disregarded the rule of law and our Constitution,” said Chiu. “This is not a one-off case,” said community historian David Lei, adding that the community spearheaded some 10,000 civil rights lawsuits in the first 23 of the more than 60 years the Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect.  “The real story was: We fought back,” Lei said. In their suit, Doe v. Trump (1:25-cv-10136), against the birthright citizenship order, plaintiffs including the city of San Francisco.  “It’s not just a Chinese issue,” said Bill Ong Hing, a professor of law and migration studies at the University of San Francisco. Hing noted that the anti-Chinese sentiment from a century ago has resurfaced in new forms, now also targeting immigrants from Mexico and Central America.  Norman Wong, the great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, echoed Hing, saying that other family members who were not of Chinese descent were affected by past discriminatory policies. Wong’s mother, who is Japanese American, was forcibly taken to an incarceration camp with her family under Executive Order 9066 during World War II. “These are the consequences of these unequal laws,” Wong said. City Attorney David Chiu said he expects the lawsuits to prevail in appellate court, but that the Trump administration will likely appeal the appellate rulings all the way up to the Supreme Court.  Read the San Francisco Public Press report: https://bit.ly/40zGRJo.  Read the AP News report: https://bit.ly/3Wzps2l

 

 

Cato: Federal Court Rules FISA Section 702 “Back Door” Searches Unconstitutional


According to Cato Institute on January 22, 2025, a December 2, 2024, ruling by Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall of the Eastern District of New York marked a significant development in surveillance law, finding that the FBI’s use of warrantless "back door" searches under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) violated the Fourth Amendment. These searches allow the FBI to query communications collected without a warrant from non-U.S. persons abroad, but they often incidentally include Americans’ communications. The court’s decision underscores longstanding concerns over privacy and the scope of government surveillance powers.Despite acknowledging the constitutional violation, the court denied defendant Agron Hasbajrami’s motion to suppress the evidence obtained through these searches, citing separate legal grounds. Hasbajrami, a lawful U.S. resident originally from Albania, was charged in 2011 with providing material support to a terrorist organization. While the evidence obtained through Section 702 queries played a key role in the investigation, the court determined that excluding the evidence was not warranted under the circumstances of the case.The ruling has drawn significant attention from civil liberties advocates. Patrick Toomey, an attorney with the ACLU, remarked, “While the new opinion holds that the FBI’s Section 702 queries violated the Fourth Amendment, the court ultimately denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the resulting evidence on separate grounds.” This decision highlights the ongoing debate over balancing national security interests with constitutional protections and could have implications for the upcoming reauthorization of Section 702, a key provision of U.S. intelligence law set to expire in December 2025.

 

Xiaoxing Xi, a Chinese American physics professor at Temple University, and his family filed a lawsuit in 2017, challenges the FBI’s baseless arrest of him and its surveillance methods as well as its discriminatory targeting of Chinese American scientists.  ACLU represents Professor Xi, who is suing the government over its dismissed prosecution of him for supposedly sharing sensitive technology with scientists in China. The dangers of giving the government sweeping surveillance powers are real and unmistakable. Professor Xi's case is a glaring example of an innocent American’s privacy rights being grossly violated, with disastrous consequences for him and his family.Read the Cato Institute report: https://bit.ly/3Q8Depn.  Read the ACLU summary of Professor Xi's lawsuit: https://bit.ly/3GlCCqS

 

 

2025/01/06 APA Justice Monthly Meeting Summary Posted 


 

 

The January 2025 APA Justice monthly meeting summary has been posted at . We thank the following speakers for their reports and updates:

 

·       Judy Chu, Chair Emeritus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) with video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MNT61PApwQ (8:17) 

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

·       Joanna YangQing Derman, Director, Anti-Profiling, Civil Rights & National Security Program, Advancing Justice | AAJC

·       Kai Li, Vice President, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF)

·       Sudip Parikh, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Executive Publisher of the Science family of journals

·       Robert S. Chang, Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, University of California Irvine School of Law

·       Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor, China Focus, Carter Center

 

Read the January 2025 APA Justice monthly meeting summary: https://bit.ly/40J9cOY. Read previous monthly meeting summaries: https://bit.ly/3kxkqxP

 

 

News and Activities for the Communities

 

1. APA Justice Community Calendar

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Events:2025/01/30 USCET Women in China Policy: Tech and US-China Competition2025/01/30 ACLU Know Your Rights Training: Mass Deportation2025/02/02 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/02/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting2023/02/03 Getting China Right: Launch of ACF Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University2025/02/13-15 2025 AAAS Annual Meeting2025/02/16 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/03/02 Rep. Gene Wu's Town Hall Meeting2025/03/03 APA Justice Monthly MeetingVisit https://bit.ly/3XD61qV for event details.

 

2. Get Help Today on LA Fires

Californians can go to CA.gov/LAfires – a hub for information and resources from state, local and federal government.  Individuals and business owners who sustained losses from wildfires in Los Angeles County can apply for disaster assistance:

 

·       Online at DisasterAssistance.gov

·       Calling 800-621-3362

·       By using the FEMA smart phone application

·       Assistance is available in over 40 languages

·       If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service.

 

Please share with your families, friends, and colleagues in the Los Angeles area.

 

 

3. 2025/01/30 USCET Women in China Policy: Tech and US-China Competition

WHAT: Women in China Policy: Tech and US-China CompetitionWHEN: January 30, 2025, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm ETWHERE: Room 505, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington UniversityHOST: US-China Education Trust, Women's Foreign Policy Group, and the American Mandarin SocietyPANELISTS:

 

·       Nina Palmer, Senior Principal Data Scientist for Strategic Economics, MITRE

·       Samantha Payne, Defense Fellow, Office of U.S. Representative Marc Veasey (D-TX). 

 

DESCRIPTION: This insightful discussion will explore the critical intersection of technology and U.S.-China competition, offering unique perspectives on this complex topic.REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/3PNW0lI

 

 

4. 2025/01/30 ACLU Know Your Rights Training: Mass Deportation

WHAT: ACLU Know Your Rights Training: Mass DeportationWHEN: January 30, 2025, 8:00 pm ETWHERE: Training via ZoomHOST: ACLU DESCRIPTION: The Trump administration has been gearing up for mass deportations since day one, threatening the safety of millions of families. Join the ACLU's People Power Immigration/Deportation Know Your Rights Training to learn how you can protect immigrant communities facing these escalating threats.REGISTRATIONhttps://bit.ly/3PLEvCl 

# # #

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.

January 27, 2025

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