Los Angeles County’s substantial Asian immigrant communities endure chaos and heartbreak as rumors of a massive deportation occurring under a new sweep order issued by the Trump administration.
Religious centres and employment sites have community leaders host “know your rights” training sessions in Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi and other languages, and federal agents at home or at work. If you are faced with, you are educating immigrants.
“Actually, concerns are what we hear,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the South Asian Network. Even Asians born in the US or who have achieved legal status through other routes are worried about what will happen next. “People who look brown are recognized as permanent foreigners,” Said said. “As a result, they may also be raided in raids just because they don’t look like “Americans.” ”
An estimated 79% of LA County’s undocumented residents are natives of Mexico and Central America, but Asian immigrants form the second largest group, making up 16% of the county without legal approval I’m doing it. According to the Institute for Immigration Policy. Across the United States, Indians form the third largest group of undocumented residents behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.
Asian organizers say the Trump administration’s policies have been causing serious reactions in Los Angeles County by viewing them as someone in the country without recognizing detectives who are eligible for rapid deportation. According to Pu Research Centerthe Lattropolitan region has the largest population of American Cambodians, Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos, Thais and Vietnamese people.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed a massive number of executive orders aimed at dramatically reshaping American immigration. Taken together, the order sharply limits the legal pathways to entering the United States, strengthens enforcement efforts to block the US-Mexico border, and promotes aggressive sweeps to help people living in the United States. The deadline will be closed illegally and will be deported. He empowered immigrants and customs enforcement officials to deport more than one million immigrants who were allowed legal entry into the United States during the Biden administration while awaiting an asylum plea hearing. .
Recently, a group of around 100 Indian immigrants were taken to India by US military planes. And this week, news reports said 119 immigrants, including some from Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Transported by plane In Panama, they are waiting for deportation to their home country. Media reports suggest that the Indian government has agreed to repatriate 18,000 Indians living in the US
Traditionally, many Asian immigrants living in Los Angeles have legally come to the United States using temporary jobs or tourist visas. They then either gained legal status or simply stayed in excess of visas. Said said that motivations vary, but like Latino immigrants, many Asian immigrants want to live in the US as they offer jobs and educational opportunities they don’t have to go home. Masu. Some people are fleeing oppressive government regimes, oppressive cultures, or religious persecution.
Manjusha Kulkarni is the executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of over 40 community organizations. Kulkarni said that Asian immigrants, who lack legal status, tend to work in low-wage services jobs in industries where Asian American communities have established a strong presence for generations. He said there is. For example, many of the undocumented Vietnamese works at nail salons. Many Cambodians in the donut shop. Many Indians in the hotel and motel industry. At Monterey Park, a common landing site for Chinese immigrants, employment agencies routinely connected workers, restaurants and marijuana farms, with no work permit required.
With the increasing number of Asian immigrants in recent years, as jobs and tourist visas have become more difficult, they have joined Central Americans across the dangerous jungle to demand asylum at the US Mexican border. I did.
Federal government data shows that the number of Chinese national authorities encountered at the borders of the southern and northern United States was 78,701 in 2024, up from 27,756 in 2022. The number of Indian citizens encountered at the borders of the southern and northern United States was 90,415 in 2024, up from 63,927 in 2022.
Connie Chung Joe, executive director of Asian Americans to advance Southern California judges, said he was told he was cancelling his medical appointment because he feared that Asian immigrants would be considered civil servants. Ta. The event for food distribution and Covid-19 vaccination, which normally attract hundreds of migrants, is currently attracting 50 people.
“There can be general anxiety and fear of being seen, or what happens when they go out,” she said.
One LA County resident who doesn’t want to be identified because of the lack of family legal status said she and her family are becoming more cautious when they leave the house. Trump’s election “has made us feel we have no strength,” she said.
She said she and her family arrived from Pakistan at the age of 8 on a visa that eventually expired. She later became a recipient of DACA. This is a status that allows her to live and work in the United States, but her parents remain undocumented. Rumors of the impending attack made her family reluctant to drive. It means that there are fewer outings and when they drive, they take special care not to do anything that may attract attention.
Amir Meltaban, executive director of the Orange County Islamic Association, is preparing to welcome thousands of people at the mosque in preparation for Ramadan, which begins at the end of the month. Already, he said the organization is holding training sessions. These include students who have sought guidance on how to approach public protests if they are in the US on a visa, temporary status or undocumented.
Even the mosque said that even the mosque became a source of tension as Trump gave the ICE OK to raid the place of worship.
“Some of the community is scary because they literally expect an ice attack at any time,” he said. “People come in safe spaces where they can defeat security guards and connect with higher powers. The last thing I need is whether they will be deported or not, or law enforcement will have a mosque. It’s a community to worry about whether or not they’re going to attack.”
