Brazil arrests Bangladeshi leader of human smuggling ring

An international human smuggling ring -- from Bangladesh via South America to Mexico with the United States as its end destination -- was busted with the arrest of its leader in Brazil.

Thursday (Oct. 31) extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between United States and Brazilian law enforcement authorities culminated in the Brazil Federal Police (DPF) conducting a significant enforcement operation to disrupt and dismantle a transnational alien smuggling organization, including the arrest on Brazilian charges of an alleged alien smuggler who has also been indicted in the United States.

The alien smugglers targeted in this operation are alleged to be responsible for the illicit smuggling of scores of individuals from South Asia and elsewhere, into Brazil, and ultimately to the United States.

Saifullah Al-Mamun aka Saiful Al-Mamun, 32, was arrested in Brazil. Al-Mamun is charged in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas – Laredo Division, charging him with eight conspiracy and alien smuggling counts.

The enforcement operation included the execution of multiple search warrants and the additional arrests of seven Brazil-based human smugglers on Brazilian charges: Saifullah Al-Mamun, 32; Saiful Islam, 32; Tamoor Khalid, 31; Nazrul Islam, 41; Mohammad Ifran Chaudhary, 39; Mohammad Nizam Uddin, 28; and Md Bulbul Hossain, 36.

According to the indictment, Al-Mamun is alleged to have housed the aliens in São Paulo, Brazil and arranged for their travel through a network of smugglers operating out of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to the United States. In return for smuggling the aliens into the US, Al-Mumun and his two co-conspirators, are alleged to have arranged to be paid in Mexico, Central America, South America, Bangladesh, and elsewhere.

“Today’s indictment shows our commitment to prosecute here in the United States those alien smugglers who put our country’s public safety at risk by attempting to thwart our system of legal immigration,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. 

Two of the co-conspirators, both of whom are Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested in August.

Milon Miah, who was living in Tapachula, Mexico, was arrested Aug. 31 on arrival at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, to face charges in the superseding indictment for his role in the scheme to smuggle aliens into the US.

Moktar Hossain, 31, formerly residing in Monterrey, Mexico, pleaded guilty on Aug. 27 for his role in the scheme to smuggle aliens to the US for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.

“Transnational human smuggling organizations threaten the security of the United States,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Phoenix.

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TGIF Feature: Filipino American characters to debut in Pixar's 'Float'

PIXAR

A first: The two lead characters in 'Float' are Filipino Americans.

ASAM NEWS &
VIEWS FROM THE EDGE

Animation takes a new twist, courtesy of Pixar, with its new short Float due out November 12 with the debut of the Disney+ streaming platform.
Float is one of six projects under its SparkShorts banner. It’s from writer/producer Bobby Rubio.

This is believed to be the first time ever Filipino American characters have been featured in animation. It’s also the first time Pixar has introduced Filipino CGI characters.

In his video blog on YouTube, Frank Bernard said SparkShorts is designed to bring more diverse storytelling to Pixar Studios. 

Bernard described the story in Float this way. “The dad has tanned skin, large expressive eyes, a very prominent Filipino nose, and definitely epitomizes the traits of a Filipino father. The fact that he’s depicted as a very protective dad who tries to keep his son grounded, literally, is so Filipino, and it really shows Rubio is tying in his own culture in his work.”

Rubio has worked as a story artist for Incredibles 2, Inside Out, and Monsters University.

“I know what it means to see our culture represented on screen,” Rubio wrote on Twitter.

Rubio has worked on other Pixar hits including Incredibles 2, Inside Out, Up and Monsters and also the animate films Tarzan and Avatar: The Last Airbender series. 

He shared how important it is to finally have characters that represent millions of Filipinos all over the world.

"I am proud to tell our stories. I know what it means to see our culture represented on screen! #RepresentationMatters," he wrote.

Excitement in the Fil Am community is building

"I am so grateful to tell our stories. I know what it means to be underrepresented... I’m going to do my best to tell MORE!" he wrote in another tweet.

Rubio is currently on a separate project entitled Neighborhood Legend, starring yet another Filipino American character in a story set in his hometown of San Diego, California.

You can get a look at all six Pixar SparkShorts in the trailer below.

“The SparkShorts program is designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows,” said Jim Morris, president of Pixar Animation Studios. “These films are unlike anything we’ve ever done at Pixar, providing an opportunity to unlock the potential of individual artists and their inventive filmmaking approaches on a smaller scale than our normal fare.”

Added Lindsey Collins, vice president of development for Pixar, “We want to nurture our future storytellers and encourage them to share their stories with the world. Who are the future directors and producers and what crazy new ideas do they have brewing? What is the next big breakthrough in our industry? Diversity and inclusion are at the heart of Sparkshorts. The program was created to provide opportunities to a wide array of artists—each with something unique to say.”

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Kamala Harris campaign in trouble, goes all out for Iowa

YOUTUBE

Sen. Kamala Harris is campaigning hard in Iowa.

ANALYSIS

During a fundraiser in Los Angeles, a reporter recently overheard her telling fellow Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, "I'm f*****g moving to Iowa." She won't be alone. Most of her staff will be in the Hawkeye state with the nation's first Caucus on Feb. 3.

Staff who were not let go at Harris' national headquarters in Baltimore will be joining her in Iowa. Additional staff will be coming in from New Hampshire, Nevada and California to bolster the candidate's flagging campaign.

Despite an impressive launch and an encouraging debate performance in the Democrats' first debate in June, Harris' numbers have been moving down at a steady rate.

Harris insisted Wednesday that she has always felt like an underdog in this race. Unlike other candidates, she pointed out, she had not run for president before and did not have a long donor list from which to draw. She also said she didn’t have enough money to throw $10 million of her own funds into the campaign to give herself a boost.

Although she doesn't stress it on the campaign trail, Harris, whose late mother was from India and her father is from Jamaica, has privately acknowledged that voters have never had to vote for someone who looks like her. 

"I fully intend to win,” the Indian American candidate told reporters Wednesday night before speaking at a house party in Newton. “It is not going to be easy — I knew that from day one, and I made that very clear from day one.”

After the June debate, Harris was polling second to frontrunner former Vice President Joe Biden. In the newest national poll released by USA Today/Suffolk on Wednesday, Harris garnered only 3% of support.

It's unfortunate that Harris has had to put all her chips in Iowa. Iowa and New Hampshire are among the least racially diverse states in the nation. A strong third place finish would actually be a victory for a woman of color. She needs to do well in one of those two states before Nevada with an influential and active Asian American electorate; followed by South Carolina where African American voters will likely swing the state towards Biden.

But that won't be easy. According to the latest survey in Iowa, Harris is polling at only 3%, far below the four white candidates -- Joe Biden, 18%; Elizabeth Warren, 17%; Pete Buttigeig, 13%; Bernie Sanders, 9% -- and just a step ahead of Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Cory Booker. 

Even in her home state of California, Harris numbers fell from 19% in July to 8% in the new poll by Public Policy Institute, behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (23%), former Vice President Joe Biden (22%) and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (21%) are now tied as the leaders in the field among the state's likely voters. 

So far, Biden, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, Harris, and Yang have qualified for November’s debate, as have Senators Klobuchar and Booker, and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer. Gabbard, former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro have reached the donor threshold but have not yet amassed enough polls to qualify.

After the USA Today poll numbers came out, Harris tweeted, “Nothing worth fighting for is easy. Making history isn’t easy. Defending justice isn’t easy. We do it because it matters—and we intend to win.”

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Immigration advocates use courts to stymie Trump's immigration restrictions

The Donald Trump administration continues to create barriers to make it difficult for people to immigrate to the US to become citizens. And immigration advocates find themselves scrambling to counter to Trump's xenophobic and racist policies.

A coalition of immigration advocacy groups and legal organizations on Wednesday (Oct. 30) mounted the first legal challenge against a sweeping proclamation Trump issued earlier this month, reports CBS News. The new rule would allow the immigration authorities to reject visa applications from immigrants it determines will not be able to afford health insurance or pay for medical costs.

If visa applicants are unable to show some proof of their ability to pay for insurance or medical costs, overseas consular offices can deny their applications. According to an estimate from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, the new requirements could deny entry to approximately 375,000 would-be immigrants each year.

“It is terrifying for US citizens to think that they may never be able to reunite in person with their loved ones because of this proclamation," said AILA Federal Litigation Director Jesse Bless. "The proclamation represents the latest attempt to separate families and undermine due process solely on the basis of cultural and national origin-based bias. It’s as unAmerican as the public charge rule,” he said in a statement.

The US District Court in Oregon was asked to block the Trump administration from implementing the new policy, which is slated to take effect Sunday. 

Another barrier faces the possibility of a lawsuit. On Friday (Oct. 25), the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced changes to the naturalization process that could prevent citizenship for tens of thousands of non-wealthy applicants each year.

Under current policy, there is a $725 application fee. US Citizenship and Immigration Services currently waives the fee for those who cannot afford to pay it, which is approximately 40% of applicants. Under rules in place since 2010, lawful permanent residents (also called green card holders) who receive benefits from another government agency are automatically entitled to a fee waiver, making the process easy for USCIS to administer and for applicants and service providers to complete.

The new rules will make it much harder to qualify for a fee waiver, and will severely curtail naturalization applications, particularly from low-income applicants. Recent research from Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Lab suggests that the new rules could reduce the number of naturalization applications filed each year by as much as 10 percent.

“This rule change is about changing the complexion of future immigrants from black and brown to white and furthers a class-based society that is discriminatory and unwelcoming," said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

"We cannot allow our government policies to reject the time-tested promise on the Statue of Liberty of a country that is accepting of the potential of the tired, poor, and huddled masses who yearn to breathe free in America,” said Yang. 

Advancing Justice-AAJC, Protect Democracy, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, and Mayer Brown LLP are preparing to file suit in California on behalf of organizations and communities who will be harmed by these changes.

The lawsuit on the health care requirement and the pending lawsuit limiting the citizenship fee waiver are the latest barriers being challenged. Last summer, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) tried to implement the so-called "public charge" rule that would allow the denial of visas and green cards to people who use or might use certain public benefits like food stamps and government-subsidized housing. That rule is currently held up in court, while a companion State Department regulation has not been implemented because the agency has yet to clear a new form to be used by visa applicants.

Other anti-immigrant attempts include the Muslim ban, severely limiting refugees or those seeking asylum, the continuing deportation of Southeast Asians who had run afoul of the law, new limits on the family reunification guidelines, by slowing to a trickle those seeking asylum at the US southern border that includes separating children from their parents to dissuade those same asylum seekers and the obsessive push for a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Filipino Americans tell U. of California to stop using ACT & SAT tests for admission

UC BERKELEY

Asian and Asian American students make up 36% of the student body at the University of California at Berkeley.

Filipino Americans have joined several other agencies recommending that the University of California drop the use of standardized tests long used to evaluate applicants to California colleges.

Lawyers representing Stockton-based Little Manila Rising, three individual students, the Compton Unified School District, civil-rights groups, and college-access organizations said on Tuesday (Oct. 29) that they planned to sue the University of California unless it drops its ACT/SAT requirement.

In a letter to the UC Regents, attorneys allege that the testing requirement violates state civil-rights laws. They describe their clients as well-qualified students who as a result of the requirement “have been subject to unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and wealth.”

"Historically, the SAT is a derivative of IQ tests that come out of a tradition of eugenics designed to destabilize communities of color," said Lisa Holder, Counsel at the Equal Justice Society. "Accordingly, the SAT has built-in biases that ultimately derail the college aspirations of thousands of hardworking students of color. The test serves no purpose other than to act as a barrier to access for historically disadvantaged students. The U.C. Regents have a duty to end this discriminatory practice."

The letter that was sent is a legal step that usually is a precursor to a lawsuit.

"Little Manila Rising believes that eliminating the SAT and ACT will help Filipino/a students access higher education and gain tools to achieve personal success and deepen their understanding of their own history," the education and cultural advocates said in a statement. "We also choose to stand in solidarity and allyship with other marginalized communities who are affected by this discriminatory practice."

The potential lawsuit apparently would be the first to take direct aim at a college’s ACT/SAT requirement. Test scores are among the 14 factors the university considers in its evaluations of applicants. This legal curveball comes as the influential university system is once again scrutinizing its reliance on college-entrance exams. Recently, members of UC’s Academic Senate began a study to determine whether the ACT and SAT are useful measures of academic performance. 

Due to the discriminatory nature of the exams, the SAT and ACT tests have resulted in starkly disparate student outcomes. According to College Board’s 2018 data for students taking the SAT in California, 44% of White students scored 1200 or above, compared to only 10% of Black students and 12% of Latinx students.

Although Asian students have the highest scores when grouped together by the College Board, such a grouping masks the demographic diversity of Asian American and Pacific Islander populations and obscures the fact that certain subgroups score much lower than average.

“We’ve seen firsthand how SAT and ACT scores act as a discriminatory barrier to college access for students from historically disenfranchised communities through our college prep programs,” said Dillon Delvo, Executive Director of Little Manila Rising, one of the organizational plaintiffs in the case. “Eliminating these discriminatory practices will help Filipino/a students and students from other marginalized communities access higher education and achieve personal success.”

"Filipinos have the lowest UC admission rates out of all major Asian groups - 54% of applicants, compared to 70% Chinese, 73% Taiwanese, 69% Korean, 67% Vietnamese, 66% Indian, and 64% Japanese. Let’s unpack that! two-thirds to three-quarters of other groups are admitted but only one-half of Filipinos are," said Kevin Nadal, PhD. The Filipino American professor at City University of New York compiled the data supporting his conclusion:

At some campuses of the nine-campus system, the admission rate for Filipinos and Filipino Americans is even worse. At the highly competitive campus of UC Berkeley, only 12% of the Filipino applicants were admitted. Only Hmong applicants with a 10% admittance rate had a lower students admitted.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This chart was updated  Oct. 31 to correct the number of African Americans accepted to UCB.) 

The Academic Senate’s forthcoming recommendations, expected next year, could have far-reaching implications for the testing industry. After all, the mammoth university system is the SAT biggest’s customer; if it stopped requiring the test, many other institutions might follow suit. And then the ground beneath the feet of legions of college applicants could shift.

In their demand letter, lawyers for the potential plaintiffs distinguished between the university’s internal study and a potential lawsuit: “This is not a discretionary policy decision; it is a legal obligation, and it is urgent.”

The letter alleges that requiring admission exams discriminates against underrepresented minority students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. Moreover, the letter contends, that discrimination is exacerbated by unequal access to test preparation.

“The admissions process must take place on a level playing field … that rejects privilege and wealth as decisive factors,” Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer for Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm based in Los Angeles, said during a teleconference on Tuesday. The university’s testing requirement “creates unlawful barriers for talented and qualified students with less wealth.”

In a written response, Zachary Goldberg, a spokesman for the College Board, said that the letter contained several incorrect assertions: “The notion that the SAT is discriminatory is false,” he said. “Any objective measure of student achievement will shine a light on inequalities in our education system.

“Our focus, with our members and partners, is combating these longstanding inequalities,” he continued. “More than 140 school districts and county offices of education across California, including some of the largest and most diverse districts in the state, support using the redesigned SAT as part of their efforts to improve college readiness and break down barriers to college.”

If California schools were to drop the use of the ACT and SAT, it would encourage other states to follow suit since California has the highest number of students who take those flawed tests. Other tests that are not culturally biased would take the place of the ACT and SAT but would still provide an indicator how the students might perform in the higher ed institutions.

UC's Academic Senate is currently considering its use of the SAT and ACT in admissions decisions and may offer a recommendation to the Regents early next year. 

“We don’t need to wait for yet another study to prove that the SAT and ACT are meaningless and unjust,” said Gregory Ellis of Scheper Kim & Harris, co-counsel on the case. “This is urgent. Right now, students are being asked to take a test that has no real value, but will determine their futures. These students have no time to lose.”

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Indian American family featured in possible spinoff from Fresh Off the Boat

Preity G. Zinta, left, and Vir Das have been cast in a 'Fresh Off the Boat' episode that might spin off.

ASAM NEWS

Two leads have been named to star in a potential spinoff of Fresh off the Boat. The new show now in development would center around an Indian American family whose daughter goes to school with Eddie Huang (Hudson Yang), reports Variety.
The show is tentatively titled "Magic Motor Inn" and would star Vir Das as father DC and Preity G. Zinta as the mother, Meena.

Both characters will be introduced in a Fresh off the Boat episode which is scheduled to be shot in mid-November. If successful, a formal pilot will be ordered.

According to Forbes, writer-producer Rachna Fruchbom will be writing the new series. The Indian American scriptwriter is currently under a deal with 20th Century Fox. She is currently a supervising producer of Fresh off the Boat after moving up from a writer position. 

Vir Das is a YouTube star and actor and has two Netflix specials. Variety named him one of the top ten comedians to watch in 2017. The highly popular Zinta has starred in 37 Bollywood films.

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Leader of home invasion ring targeting Asian households sentenced to 37 years

Chaka Castro led a home invasion operation that targeted Asian homes.

A Texas woman was sentenced to 37 years in prison for her role as the leader of several robbery crews that traveled across the United States in order to conduct armed home invasions of families of Asian descent. 

A mother of five, Chaka Castro, 44, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced Monday (Oct. 28) by US District Court Judge Laurie J. Michelson of the Eastern District of Michigan, who presided over the trial. After a five-week trial, Castro was convicted of one count of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy, four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and four counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

According to evidence presented at trial, from 2011 to 2014, Castro and her robbery crews committed a string of home invasions in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Texas. 

As the leader of the robbery crews, Castro would generate lists of robbery targets in various states around the county, specifically families of Asian and Indian ancestry, and then assign crews to carry out the armed robberies of these families within their homes. 

“Their theory is that Asians and Indians don’t trust financial institutions in America, so they’re more apt to keep money and gold on hand,” said Detective Christopher Bradshaw of the Milton, Ga., police department,

Once Castro assigned a crew to a particular area, members of the group would travel to that location, conduct surveillance and execute the robberies. 

The crews utilized a particular modus operandi in each of the robberies. They disguised their appearance with clothing and bandanas so that victims of their robberies would have difficulty identifying them. 

They would openly carry and brandish firearms to gain control of the victims and then immediately corral the victims, including children, into one location in the home. At least one robber would then restrain the victims with duct tape and threats of violence, as another partner would ransack the home in search of cash, jewelry and electronics to steal. The group organized their trips to involve multiple home invasion robberies over a series of days.

According to news reports, in April 2015 six people, who had roles in five home-invasion robberies targeting Indian American families in New Jersey were indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury. Among those arrested was Castro, who was going b the name Catinan Dennings.

In an investigative report about the national home invasion ring in New Jersey, NJ.com quoted authorities as telling the outlet in December 2014 that it was an operation by turns sophisticated and brutish, employing financial databases, demographic data, pinpoint targets, the element of surprise and, not least, violence and intimidation.

The report that pieced together information from multiple sources and several states, including from investigators and Castro’s former acquaintances, said Castro, who along with five other crews remained jailed in Texas, is a New York native of Colombian descent. She was described as “funny with a natural charisma that attracted people. Castro was also smart and fluent in Spanish and capable of holding a basic conversation in French.

Bradshaw told the paper that Castro had a background in online research and access to financial databases, likely through an old employer. The detective believed that she was a loan officer at one point.

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Star Wars: Kelly Marie Tran gets the last laugh against her critics

Kelly Marie Tran will reprise her role as Rose Tico in 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.'

ASAM NEWS

Kelly Marie Tran has been teasing fans and the media about her character Rose Tico’s role in the upcoming Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
According to Digital Spy, Tran says Rose will be more involved in the resistance than she was in The Last Jedi.

“Before, Rose was a new character who was in maintenance and she was not a huge part of the resistance,” Tran told Digital Spy. “But now she’s in the resistance in a big way and it’s very cool.”

Since character descriptions were released for The Rise of Skywalker in September, fans have speculated that Rose could play a bigger role.

According to Comic Book, the description reads: “Rose has risen through the ranks from lowly engineering support crew to military commander. She leads the Engineering Corps in making the necessary modifications to keep the Resistance’s gear operational, as well as countering new advancements in First Order technology.”

Tran told Digital Spy that she had to do more training for The Rise of Skywalker than she did in The Last Jedi.

“I had to learn everything that had to do with being in a war, like holding a gun,” Tran said. “I’ve never held a gun before. Things like that, that you don’t even think about when you’re watching this movie. We’re all real people living real lives.”

"We don't shoot arrows off horses normally, so we have to learn every little thing. There's so much detail and so much work that goes into everything."

After the release of The Last Jedi, Tran was bullied on social media because some Star Wars fans were unhappy with her character. Now, many fans who supported the character hope that Rose will be treated more respectfully after The Rise of Skywalker is released.

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Woman allegedly responsible for boyfriend's suicide

ASAM NEWS

A grand jury has indicted 21-year-old Inyoung You in the death of her boyfriend, Alexander Urtula, NBC News reports. She faces charges of involuntary manslaughter for her alleged involvement in her boyfriend’s suicide.

Urtula and You were both students at Boston College. Urtula was a biology major from Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and a member of the Philippine Society of Boston College. He took his own life the morning by jumping off a parking garage on May 20, the morning he was set to graduate.

According to The Boston Globe, District Attorney Rachel Rollins announced on Monday (Oct. 28) morning that a grand jury had indicted You on October 18. You is currently in South Korea, but prosecutors will seek her extradition if she does not return to the US to face the charge.

Prosecutors said that You and Urtula exchanged 75,000 text messages in the two months leading up to his suicide, NBC News reports. Rollins said that You sent Urtula “demeaning” texts despite being aware of his depression. She allegedly encouraged Urtula to kill himself. She told him that his family and the “world would be better without him.”

Rollins added that You also tracked Urtula’s location on her phone. She was even at the parking garage when Urtula killed himself.

The case in Boston is similar to the 2017 Michelle Carter case. Carter urged her boyfriend Conrad Roy III on the day he committed suicide. Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by the Supreme Judicial Court for her role in her boyfriend’s suicide.

Rollins, however, seemed to imply that the case against You maybe even stronger. In the Carter case, Rollins said there was “very limited physical contact prior and some very egregious language” leading up to Roy’s suicide. According to The Boston Globe, Carter had only recently been released from a psychiatric hospital the month before Roy’s suicide.

“We have, quite frankly, the opposite of that,” Rollins said. “We have a barrage, a complete and utter attack on this man’s very will and conscious and psyche by an individual to the tune of 40,000 text messages in the two months leading up.”

However, a legal analyst for CBS News named Rikki Klieman said the case may be harder to try because You went to see Urtula at the parking garage.

“We don’t know what happened there,” Klieman said.

It is not clear when legal proceedings will begin. The direction prosecutors take within the next few weeks will be influenced by whether or not You willingly returns to the US to face the charge. According to NBC News, neither You or a representative for You could be reached for comment.

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Will Asian American voters turn deep-red Texas to purple?

At a recent meeting of Texas' Tarrant County Democratic Party group representing Asian Americans, the packed room in a Vietnamese restaurant broke into whoops and hollers, a hallmark of Texas celebrations.
“This is the fastest-growing community in Tarrant County,” said Aftab Siddiqui, its co-chair, to whoops from the audience packed into the small Vietnamese restaurant. “And also the state.”

But aided by both rapid demographic shifts and a backlash to Donald Trump's racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, the suburbs around Forth Worth and other Texas cities are growing more racially diverse and the newcomers -- particularly Asian Americans -- tend to vote for Democrats. 

In 2018, Democrats flipped two congressional seats in Texas. Now, they're eyeing at least six more GOP-held districts that may be vulnerable, including the 22nd District, which is anchored in Fort Bend County, along with parts of Harris and Brazoria counties.

The Asian American Pacific Islanders Committee was established a month ago, the latest sign of how Democrats believe a changing population might help them end the Republicans’ 30-year hold on Texas. The state’s Hispanic population is expected to surpass the number of white residents in 2022.

At the same time, an influx of Asian Americans is providing organizers like Siddiqui, who arrived from Pakistan in the 1990s, with hope that an influx of new voters can make a decisive difference. According to 2016 presidential election exit polling, 72% of Asian Americans in Texas voted for Hillary Clinton, compared to 26% who backed Donald Trump.

The Asian population is the fastest-growing group in the state, according to the US Census Bureau, which estimates that it grew 42% between 2010 and 2017.

At about 1.2 million people, it is still a small minority among a total population of a little more than 28 million, but Siddiqui said many were newly energized.

Sri Kulkarni, left, and Gina Ortiz Jones are running for Congress in Texas.

This is good news for Asian American candidates Gina Ortiz Jones running to represent the sprawling 23rd Congressional District and Sri Kulkarni in the 22nd District in the suburbs of Houston.

Ortiz Jones, a Filipina American, hopes to win the seat that has been left open since incumbent Will Hurd, a moderate Republican, announced he would not seek reelection. Some say Hurd saw the writing on the wall as he was put in jeopardy by Trump's harsh immigration policies that he mostly opposed.

"We have already scared out Will Hurd," says Ortiz Jones, who lost to Hurd by a meager 1000 votes.

Instead of writing off Asian American voters because they either don't vote or vote Republican, Kulkarni has staked his entire campaign on the voting bloc, believing the growing number of minority voters in Texas' 22nd Congressional District are ready to oust Republican Rep. Pete Olson. The Indian American narrowly lost to Olson in the 2018 mid-terms. He hopes that Democrats will come out in droves in 2020 because of the high interest in the Presidential race.

"We don't have representation," Kulkarni says of Asian Americans in Houston. "You look at the population or look around at the area and you see our diversity. But then you see our leaders here. ... For a district that is 60% minority to never have had any minority representing them, there is something off there."

There are over 82,000 registered Asian voters in District 22, Kulkarni told the Daily Texan. If they all show up to vote, it could be the first election ever decided by the Asian vote in this district.

“Whatever happens … I’m going to be very proud of the effort we made,” Kulkarni said. “But clearly, if we’re successful, it’s going to have a dramatic effect with ripples throughout the country.”

Activist groups say that because of “voter suppression tactics used by the state and other entities,” the diversity of Texas is not reflected in state legislature and minority communities’ interests are not reflected in state policy.

“Our state legislators are generally a lot whiter and a lot wealthier than Texans,” said Hani Mirza, senior attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit organization based in Austin.

Voting rights groups have long accused Texas of extreme gerrymandering and restrictive voter registration rules, that in effect have rigged the state’s election rules in ways that disempower black and brown voters.

“The tactics used in gerrymandering can dilute minority votes to where they can't have their voice heard in elections,” said Mirza. He added that when drawing electoral lines, state legislature has broken up minority communities to dilute their votes, or packed minority groups into as few districts as possible to suppress their voice.

Texas is due for a federal census in 2020 and redistricting process in 2021 where electoral maps may be redrawn.

“Because of the rhetoric that has been going against communities of color, this has become a lot more understood that, we have to step forward and fight for our rights in this current atmosphere,” Siddiqui said, explaining a surge of interest that prompted the new group to serve people in and around Fort Worth.

That has put the state on the cusp of change. With the second most votes in the Electoral College -- California is tops -- Republicans need to retain Texas in their corner to counter the expected Democratic victory in California.

“Texas is at a watershed moment but in politics it is all about turning out the vote,”Siddiqui said. “If we can do that, we can turn it blue, but it might still go back and forth.”

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Muslim student disqualified from high school race for wearing her hijab

FACEBOOK / NOOR ALEXANDRIA ABUKARIAM

ASAM NEWS

A 16-year-old student athlete was disqualified from an Ohio cross country race for wearing her hijab, reports CBS News.

Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) officials did not tell Noor Alexandria Abukaram that she violated uniform rules before her run when they inspected the teams for proper attire. Instead, she found out after the race, when she noticed her time was not listed with the rest of her teammates’ times.

Abukaram explained that officials told one of her teammates to change because of a stripe on her shorts that did not match the rest of the team, but they did not say anything to her about her hijab.

Her teammates notified her after the race that she was disqualified because of her hijab.

“I felt like I had got hit by a truck and punched in the gut,” Abukaram told BBC’s Outside Source. “It’s not because they’re looking out for my safety, or because they are concerned that I have an advantage, because I definitely don’t have an advantage wearing my hijab.

“I think it’s discriminatory against my religion.”

Abukaram’s cousin, Zobaida S Falah, took to Facebook on Wednesday to share the upsetting situation.

OHSAA claims that a signed waiver was needed for Abukaram to participate with religious headwear.Jerry Flowersm Abukaram’s coach at Northview High School, spoke with CNN about the incident.

Flowers said an official notified him that paperwork was necessary for Abukaram’s hijab when they were at the starting line, only several minutes before the race. Without paperwork, she would be disqualified, and Flowers said he “had the option to ask her to remove it or not run.”

“I knew that asking her to take it off is not respectful to her,” he said. “I didn’t want to put her in the situation to make it seem like I was putting pressure on her to change who she is. I wanted her to run carefree. I figured she would race better if she didn’t know.”

Abukaram said her coach apologized to her after the race for not applying for a waiver.

“When he said that, I didn’t think, ‘Oh, Coach, why didn’t you do this?’ I thought, ‘Why do we even have to do this in the first place?'” she explained.

Abukaram has participated in previous races before without this waiver.

“Cross country runners may participate in competitions with religious headwear, provided the runner has obtained a waiver from the OHSAA and submitted it to the head official before the race, since it is a change to the OHSAA uniform regulations,” OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried told CNN. “The official was simply enforcing this rule since a waiver had not been submitted.”

The statement also said that OHSAA communicated with Abukaram’s school after the race, and a waiver request was duly submitted and approved.

While Abukaram’s time was not counted, the rest of her team qualified as a whole for regionals, which occurred yesterday.

“The student-athlete can run this weekend at regionals, and the OHSAA is also already looking at this specific uniform regulation to modify it in the future so that religious headwear does not require a waiver,” Stried told USA TODAY. He said OHSAA is considering dropping the controversial hijab rule.

The young athlete expressed gratitude for her supportive team and coach, and she’s happy to be able to participate fully in future races.

“I’m happy to follow rules, but I don’t think that the whole letter thing and having to inform people that I’m coming is proper or respectful to myself,” she said.

On the bright side, Abukaram posted on Facebook that she ran her best race yesterday at regionals.

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Sunday Read: Gov't commission says Trump's immigration policies violate civil rights

The Donald Trump administration's hardline immigration policies appear to violate the due process and civil rights of migrants and have created an unnecessary crisis at the southern border, a government agency said in a scathing report.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released its report Thursday (Oct. 24), "Trauma at the Border: The Human Cost of Inhumane Immigration Policies."

“The institution of the Zero Tolerance policy and decision to forcibly and deliberately separate children, including infants and toddlers, from parents or adult family members on a mass scale, which proceeded with no plans or coordination to reunite families, is a gross human and civil rights violation,” said Vice-Chair Patricia Timmons-Goodson. 

The report raises grave concerns about the Trump administration's asylum policies, detention practices and previously widespread use of family separation. It echoes and references a number of issues raised in other government watchdog reports and media accounts.

The report highlights testimony received from asylum seekers, legal experts, and other witnesses to the impacts of changes in immigration policy at the southern border. The report focuses on the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents, and the housing and medical care provided to asylum seekers and other immigrants while detained. 

The report concludes that the impact of separating immigrant families and indefinite detention is widespread, long-term, and may inflict irreversible physical, mental and emotional trauma.

Despite an Executive Order purporting to stop family separation, there remain credible allegations that family separations continue. 

The Commission also heard directly from immigrant detainees who confirmed traumatic experiences as a result of enduring inhumane conditions at detention facilities and cruel treatment by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel.

“The institution of the Zero Tolerance policy and decision to forcibly and deliberately separate children, including infants and toddlers, from parents or adult family members on a mass scale, which proceeded with no plans or coordination to reunite families, is a gross human and civil rights violation,” said Vice-Chair Patricia Timmons-Goodson.

“The Administration should use its authority to immediately alleviate the disturbing conditions addressed in our report, and Congress should pass multi-faceted legislation to ensure that this crisis is resolved as soon as possible, and prevented from ever happening again.”

In addition, the new testimony and data indicate that federal agencies have not heeded the Commission’s recommendations from its 2015 report, "With Liberty and Justice for All." Agencies continue to not provide appropriate and critical legal and medical services to detainees, or transparency about the government’s policies in detaining individuals.

The Commission found that today’s detention conditions have deteriorated under Trump’s policies. Some child detention facilities lack basic hygiene and sleeping arrangements; they sometimes lack soap, blankets, dental hygiene, potable water, clean clothing, and nutritious food.

The Commission heard testimony that child detention facilities lack appropriately trained medical personnel and medicine, medical staff are not routinely present at detention facilities, and wait times to see a doctor can be weeks long, regardless of how dire the situation.

Language barriers further pose an immense hurdle to staff’s ability to offer adequate and appropriate medical and mental health treatment.

Further, these policies disparately impact people of color, particularly Latinos, but Asians have been crossing the border with Mexico in greater numbers, according to Border Patrol statistics. Those who have been caught have been detained for long periods of time. Several migrants from South Asia staged a hunger strike in order to have access to attorneys.

The number of Indian nationals apprehended at the Southwest border has been steadily climbing, and sharply increased last year, according to data maintained by the border authorities. In the 2018 fiscal year, about 9,000 people from India were apprehended at the Southwest border -- more than triple the number from the year before, when 2,943 Indian migrants were apprehended.
Additionally, refugees from Southeast Asia who fled authoritarian regimes are vulnerable to deportation if they had served sentences for convictions as minor as a DUI or possession of small amounts of marijuana.

In addition, Asians who have sought refuge in the US are vulnerable to and agencies continue inequitable treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, individuals with disabilities, and non-English speakers. 

USCCR

The US Commission Civil Rights earlier this year received information on the effects of Trump's immigration policies

The Commission majority voted for key recommendations, including the following:

• The Administration must immediately reunify separated children with their caregivers, including those who were deported before, during, and after Zero Tolerance, unless there is a proven risk of abuse or neglect.
• The Administration should immediately remedy conditions in detention centers regarding overcrowding, food, and sanitation, so as not to further traumatize children forced to flee their homes.
• Mental and physical health needs must be provided, including access to medical professionals with translation services.
• To avoid these conditions going forward, Congress must pass legislation that sets safe, sanitary and humane detention conditions, and provide sufficient funding to address the crisis in detention facilities for children and adults.
• Because the purpose of immigration detention is not punitive, the standard for care and housing should be based on providing reasonable care and safety, and not on incarceration standards.
• The Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services should conduct greater oversight and inspection of detention centers, especially those where children are housed.
• The Departments should close detention centers that violate applicable standards and laws.
• Congress should also expand the authority of DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) to remedy conditions in response to complainants about detention.
• New immigration policies should be precleared by CRCL or another independent body to ensure they do not violate civil rights, prior to causing harm. In order to assure due process for all asylum seekers and other immigrants, Congress must address the need for hiring, full training, and retention of qualified administrative law judges, and interpreters.
• Translation services should be provided in detention facilities to increase communication and provide equal access to legal information and representation.
• Access to immigration lawyers should be significantly expanded. Trauma at the Border, based on expert and public input, and research and analysis, offers actionable recommendations to the President, Congress, and federal agencies.

In April 2019, the Commission held a public comment session, hearing from advocates, legal experts, and affected persons. The Commission also received 280 written public comments. 

Homeland Security, tasked to implement Trump's immigraition policies, declined to comment on the report ahead of its publication.

The Commission, which was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and has been reauthorized several times by Congress, is a bipartisan fact-finding agency aimed at informing national civil rights policy. The eight-member panel most recently addressed civil rights concerns connected to immigration detention in 2015 and last year decided to update that investigation in the wake of public reports of family separations at the border.

While the commission has no enforcement mechanism of its own, its recommendations often result in congressional legislation.

"As a nation, as we deal with the very complicated and complex issue that is immigration, we cannot and should not lose sight of our country's history and its role in the world," Timmons-Goodson tells U.S. News.

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