Anti-immigrant rhetoric may motivate Asian/Americans to cast ballots

Reprinted from AsAm News

REPUBLICAN DELEGATES chanted "Build That Wall" whenever the topic of immigration came up at the Republican National Convention last week. Little did they realize that
Asian/Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, primarily because of immigration and "The Wall" Donald Trump is trumpeting to be built along the U.S.-Mexican border, will do very little to stem the immigration from Asia.  

To date, neither political party has successfully won over the Asian American voting bloc. Known as the “sleeping giants” in this year’s presidential election, Asian Americans may just have the potential to turn several states from red to blue, including Virginia, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, and Georgia, areas where the educated workforce and immigrant populations are growing.

A coalition of Asian American / Pacific Islander organizations, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), is cultivating civic engagement and facilitating voter outreach in target areas in 25 states, reports the Washington Post. Volunteers of these nonpartisan organizations aim to increase the number of registered Asian American voters.

While many of the coalition’s volunteers have a history of political engagement, Donald Trump has provided an additional incentive for these volunteers to get out the Asian American vote. Known for his anti-immigration sentiments, Trump has struck a nerve with the Asian American community.

John Choi, a 28-year old Korean/American who grew up in Gwinnett County, Georgia, feels that he has a personal stake in this election. “I come from a family of immigrants…When I hear language and speeches and talks about policies that are anti-immigrant, it really does make me want to vote more…it makes me want to tell all my friends and family to also vote, to counter all the anti-immigration rhetoric.”

Encouraging Asian/American political participation comes with unique challenges. Christine Chen, the executive director of APIAVote explains, “Culturally, they’re coming from countries where politics are crooked, or you just don’t want to have an opinion…We’re making inroads, but there’s still a lot more work to be done … We want to shift the culture, so that way it’s normal and it’s expected you participate.”

Volunteers who can speak the native languages of these voters are uniquely able to meaningfully lower the barriers to political participation, elucidating important details like registration deadlines and articulating the importance of the vote on issues like healthcare, education, and immigration.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as making the ask. Thanh Ngo, a middle-aged Vietnamese man who had been living in the states for the past 20 years, was asked to register to vote for the very first time – and successfully persuaded – by Vietnamese American volunteer Minh Gia Nguyen.

“It’s your benefit as a citizen,” she explains. “Do it for your family, for your children’s future.”

(Views From the Edge contributed to this article.)

AAPI Congress members endorse Clinton

Hillary For America

AAPI lawmakers threw their support towards Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton May 31.

A WEEK before the California Primary, the campaign for Sec. of State Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of a key group of legislators.

Today, (May 31) the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Leadership PAC, which includes several representatives and senators from California, urged Asian/American and Pacific Islander voters to back Clinton in her bid to become President.

The AAPI population in the Golden State is growing by leaps and bounds and the AAPI electorate, estimated to make up 12 percent of the state's voters, could be critical in deciding to which Democratic presidential candidate the state's hefty Democratic delegates will rally.

“There is so much at stake in this election, and we cannot tolerate any presidential candidate who promotes fear tactics, hateful rhetoric against immigrants and bullying,” CAPAC chair Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday, alluding to Donald Trump, the GOP's presumptive candidate.

“We AAPIs must turn out the vote and ensure that our voice matters,” Chu said. “We must support the candidate who will bring us together, and make our nation more equal and just for everyone — and that person is Hillary Clinton.” 

A month ago, it was believed that Clinton had California in her pocket but a flurry of campaigning by Bernie Sanders throughout the state in the last two weeks has the race in a virtual tie, according to some polls.

While she was back east campaigning this week, Sanders stayed in California even making an appearance at the Golden State Warriors' clinching victory for the NBA's western conference championship. Clinton moved up her return to California to Thursday instead of waiting for the weekend hoping to bolster her lead.

RELATED: It's paramount to get more AAPI voters to the polls

"I am honored to have earned the endorsement of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Leadership PAC," said Clinton in response to the endorsement.

"As both First Lady and Senator from New York, I was proud to work with the AAPI community to build a fairer, freer, more tolerant and more inclusive America. During the 90s, the Clinton Administration launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, so the federal government would be more deliberate about helping all parts of the AAPI community succeed. 

"As President, I will fight alongside the AAPI community to at last pass comprehensive immigration reform with a path to full and equal citizenship. Still today, applicants from the Asia-Pacific region make up about 40 percent of the family visa backlog, and too many have waited decades to have the chance to be back with their families. 

In her statement, she also said she would defend Obamacare and improve it, increase investment in education "with universal pre-K and debt-free tuition."

RELATED: Clinton's campaign targeting the AAPI vote

Clinton launched a campaign aimed at the growing AAPI community in California last year while Sanders was concentrating on the early primaries. She recently was the only Presidential candidate to attend an event of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies (where President Obama spoke) kicking off the nation's observance of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month even though all candidates were invited.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Celebrities urge AAPI voters to exercise their right to vote

A CADRE of Asian/American celebrities joined a public service announcement intended to boost the voting turnout of the AAPI electorate.

The celebrities who participated included George Takei, John Cho, Vincent Rodriguez III,   Constance Wu, Sonal Shah and Joey Quenga. 

 The PSA was launched today (May 31), a week before California's primary on June 7.

Despite being the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and making up 12 percent of California's registered voters, the AAPI participation in the voting process lags behind other groups.

Asian American voter registration has increased nationwide 600,000 per presidential election cycle. The number of congressional candidates from the Asian American community increased from 10 in 2010 to 40 in 2016.

The campaign is a project of APIAVote with the support of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Imprenta Communications Group, The Great Company, and Asian Pacific American Leadership Foundation.

Clinton campaign names new AAPI outreach director

(March 24, 2016)

THE CAMPAIGN for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced today  that it is appointing Jason Tengco to serve as its new Asian American Pacific Islander outreach director, the campaign said in a press release.

Jason Tengco

Tengco, who served as deputy director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, replaces Lisa Changadveja, who left the role last week to take on a position with the Democratic Party in Colorado. Changadveja became Clinton's AAPI outreach director in August.

 RELATED: Clinton's AAPI outreach director resigns

"Jason is passionate about engaging AAPIs in the political process, building a pipeline for youth empowerment, and ensuring that the AAPI community's diverse issues are heard and addressed," a said a statement from the Clinton campaign.

Tengco, whose parents are from the Philippines, served as the initiative's liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement and managed the first-ever White House Summit on AAPIs. 

He has also worked for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and was an Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies fellow for U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA).

RELATED: GOP makes a push for AAPI voters 

News of Tengco's appointment comes a little more than two months after Clinton's campaign announced the formation of an AAPI leadership council, comprised of more than 150 elected officials and community leaders who will help Clinton organize support for her campaign in AAPI communities ahead of caucuses and primaries.

Members of the council include Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Gregorio Sablan from the Northern Mariana Islands.

RELATED: AAPI voters help Clinton in Nevada

Both Democrats and Republicans have made great efforts in this year's presidential race to court AAPI voters, an electorate that by 2040 is expected to double, rising to 12.2 million, according to a 2015 report from the UCLA Center for the Study of Inequality and Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

AAPI voters could play a key role in upcoming primaries and caucuses in states with sizeable AAPI communities, including Washington, New York and California. Asian Americans make up 5.4 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.

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AAPI voters help Hillary to victory in Nevada

Hillary Clinton giving her victory speech after she was declared the winner in the Democratic primary.

NEVADA'S caucus staten was a real test of how the candidates are going to woo minority voters, who in that state made up almost 40 percent of the electorate. Asian/American voters approach almost 10 percent of Nevada's registered voters.

In the tight race for the Democratic nomination where every vote could spell the difference between a victory or a loss, both campaigns for Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, placed a heavy emphasis on outreach to Asian/American voters, the fastest growing segment of the population.

RELATED: Asian/Americans hard to find in New Hampshire & Iowa

Sanders' people were aggressive in their outreach to Latinos, the largest group of minority voters. They based their despite early claims of winning over Latinos on exit polls, highly unreliable. The New York Times analysis cast doubt on that claim asserting that Clinton could have won up to 60 percent of that demographic segment.

The Clinton campaign ran this ad in time for Chinese New Year's:

With every vote crucial, there was a heavy emphasis on the AAPI vote. All the campaign workers - even those from Sanders' camp - agreed that the Clinton campaign, with a robust staff in the state for months, has had the most sustained outreach with a series of Asian/American themed events: dinners celebrating a Filipno holiday, Asian/American-themed phone banks and canvasses and making use of ethnic media to reach out to AAPI communities.

RELATED: AAPI voters could be the margin of victory in Nevada

Clinton last month kicked off her national outreach to Asian-Americans with an event in Los Angeles' heavily Asian eastern suburbs with Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan. At a recent caucus training for Asian-American Democrats in Las Vegas, the Clinton campaign's national director of Asian-American and Pacific Islander outreach, Lisa Changaveja, mentioned that Clinton's longtime aide Huma Abedin and campaign finance chairman Dennis Cheng are both Asian/American.

Changaveja argued that the former secretary of state was uniquely positioned to appeal to Asian/Americans. "She's been in Thailand more than I have, and my mother lives in Thailand," Changaveja quipped.

Ameli, the Clinton campaign volunteer, sees Clinton as a natural fit. "Asians are very family-oriented and want everything for their families, and I believe everything Hillary is for, is for our families," she said.

RELATED: Clinton reaches out to AAPI voters

America’s Opportunity Fund (AOF) ran an ad in support of Hillary Clinton for President directed towards the Filipino community, a key voting constituency within the AAPI community and paid phone banking targeting the overall AAPI community at large.

“Filipino/Americans are the largest sub ethnic group of the AAPI community and they’re the fastest growing population in Clark County,” said AOF Executive Director Madalene Mielke. “Hillary recognizes the significance of the AAPI constituency in this “First of the West” primary state.”

After Latinos, Filipno/Americans make up the largest minority group in Clark County, home of Las Vegas and where 70 percent of the state's people live.

"People like to think of us as one monolithic group, but, of course, we're not," said Changadveja, the Clinton campaign's national outreach specialist tot he AAPI communities. "There's so many languages, so many communities, so many cultures, so what we've tried to do is identify leaders in each particular subgroup community to kind of step up and kind of lead the charge."

Ray Buenaventura, a city council member from Daly City, CA was in Las Vegas to help get out the vote. He Tweeted out these images:

One of the problems to reaching out to immigrants is that the state's caucus system is new to them and requires them to be active participants beyond simply casting a ballot behind a curtain.

"From the country we come from, we do not have caucus elections," said Marjie Gonzalez, who is from the Philippines and in charge of Asian outreach for Democrats in Nevada.

"The common attitude is, you know, we'll just wait in November and we'll vote for our candidate in November. But the candidate that you like may not reach November."

Overall, the turnout for the caucus may present a worry for the Democrats. Only 80,000 Democrats voiced their preference compared to 2012 when the presidential elections drew 120,000 Democrats. Of course, this was just a primary and the vote in November is expected to attract more attention and participation. 

RELATED: GOP has a new Southern strategy with immigrants as the new Willie Horton

In the meantime, Republican and Democratic campaign workers will be focusing in registering the eligible voters from Nevada's large immigrant population.

Republicans will hold their on Feb. 23 in Nevada, where frontrunner Donald Trump owns a casino and hotel in Las Vegas.

The Democratic candidates will face off again in South Carolina on Feb. 27 where Clinton holds a sizable lead, especially among African/American voters.

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For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Clinton reaches out to Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders

Touches on family, education and immigration

ASIAN AMERICANS & Pacific Islanders came from all parts of the country to greet and show their support for Hillary Clinton's campaign for President.

Clinton launched Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) for Hillary alongside Rep. Judy Chu and dozens of AAPI elected officials and community leaders from across the nation Thursday (Jan. 7) in San Gabriel, California. 

During her half-hour speech, the presidential candidate hit on some themes important to the AAPI community: Family, education and immigration.

“I know how important family is to all of you," she told her supporters, "And that's how I see our country. I see us, when we're at our best, as lifting up families, helping families to be strong, helping families get the support they need to do the best they can for their children and for their parents. And I've said in this campaign, the stakes are very high."

“And I also want to do what I can as President to help deal with the problems that keep families up at night," she said. "Sometimes it's an illness. Sometimes it's a real risk with a job or a small business. Sometimes it's the difficulty of affording college. I know about a lot of these problems and I hear from so many people across our country.

She said she disagrees with Donald Trump and the other Republican candidates who are calling for restrictions for immigrants and refugees.

"Being an open and tolerant society does not make us vulnerable -- it's at the core of our strength of who we care in America.

“This is a lesson we would never dare to forget," said Clinton. "We are a country built by the hard work of generations of immigrants and we are stronger because of our diversity and our openness. 

She also hit a nerve when she touched on Asian/American families' respect for their elders.

“I know how hard people are working so let's make it easier to balance work and family. That’s especially true for parents of young children. We've got to join the rest of the world by guaranteeing paid family leave. But it’s also true for people who are taking care of their aging parents, isn't it. As a nation, we are not valuing and supporting family caregivers the way we should.

RELATED: GOP'S new "Southern Strategy" has immigrants in the Willie Horton role

“So here's what I am proposing. A new tax credit to help defray costs for people taking care of an older relative," drawing applause. 

She vowed to reduce the visa backlog and help unauthorized immigrants with deep community ties that “deserve the chance to stay.”

Immigration, she said, is a family issue. "That's why I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform with a path to full and equal citizenship.

“That's why you can count on me to defend President Obama's executive actions on DACA and DAPA.

“And I would go even further. There are so many more undocumented people with deep ties in their communities who deserve the chance to stay. I will fight for them, too."

Daly City Councilman Mike Guingona greets
fellow passengers on the 'Hillarybus.'

RELATED: Asian Americans lean towards Democrats

Although the AAPI community is relatively small, in certain battleground states such as Nevada, Virginia and Florida, their votes could determine the outcome of elections.

It would be a mistake to view AAPI as a voting bloc but studies have shown that Asian/Americans tend to vote Democratic and are more likely to identify themselves as liberal. 

The high-profile AAPI leaders who attended the launch was impressive. They included:

Rep. Sablan from the North Mariana Islands is with us. Norm Mineta, Former Secretary of Transportation and Commerce. John Chung, California State Treasurer. Denny [cut out], Fiona Ma, Board of Equalizers, Irene Bueno, the AAPI Director in 2008 who worked so hard for me, Trung Ta, the Founding Chairman of the Vietnamese American Democratic Club. She pointed out  Jason Pu, the Mayor of San Gabriel.

Besides the community leaders who flew in from the East Coast and Nevada, where the Asian/American electorate could tilt the outcome of the state's electoral college votes, Asian/Americans bussed in from Northern California, a six-hour trip on what they dubbed the Hillarybus..

"It’s important for Hillary’s campaign to recognize, that in California at least, our voice actually counts,” said Daly City Councilman Mike Guingona, who rode the bus from the San Francisco Bay Area.

For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

GOP's 2016 Southern Strategy has immigrants & "others" in the Willie Horton role

Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Sen. Barry Goldwater employed a Southern Strategy to woo disaffected whites to the Republican party.

ARE IMMIGRANTS and foreign-looking "others" like the Syrian and Central American refugees being used by Republicans in the dreaded 2016 version of Willie Horton?

It was 1988, Jeb Bush's father George H. Bush was polling behind Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, who had built up a 17-percentage-point lead during the summer.

Willie Horton's mugshot

Something had to be done to shore up Bush's slipping campaign. The Bush campaign team, led by Lee Atwater, found Willie Horton. 

Horton was serving a life sentence without parole in Massachusetts for killing a man. He got a weekend furlough, fled and made his way to Maryland, where he broke into a home, tied a man up and slashed him with a knife, then beat and raped the man’s fiancée.

Horton was black. The couple was white.

As governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis approved the furlough program that gave Horton weekend freedom. The mainstream media played right into Atwater's hands, repeatedly using a menacing photo of Horton.

Susan Estrich, the Dukakis campaign manager, looking back on the campaign, wrote: “There is no stronger metaphor for racial hatred in our country than the black man raping the white woman. If you were going to run a campaign of fear and smear and appeal to racial hatred you could not have picked a better case to use than this one.”

Bush beat Dukakis handily.

Presidential hopeful Donald Trump appears to have taken a page out of the elder Bush's campaign strategy. And it appears that several of the other Republican candidates have jumped on the bandwagon, including Jeb Bush, the youngest of George Bush's sons.

The intended target is the white America fearful of the demographic trends changing the face of the United States. When Republicans use the rallying cry to "Take back our country," who do you think they are "taking" it back from?

RELATED: America's challenge is learning to live with itself

The goal is to energize their base, southern whites and disaffected, white males who although poor, in the past could always fall back on their privileged status above the "coloreds" to ease any discomfort. That top spot is tenuous nowadays.

Demographic evidence and white pundits keep reminding them that the day of the white majority is slipping away. By 2040, whites will just be another under-50% ethnic group in a nation of minorities.

The white south, has always been used by the Republicans since Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential bid when he railed for "state's rights" and was implicitly against the Federal orders to desegregate schools. The calculated move to shift the normally Democratic South by winning over whites, who were angry at the Federal desegregation orders - the Dixiecrats.  Goldwater's campaign formed the basis of what was to become known as the Republican's Southern Strategy. 

Since then, every Republican candidate has built on the Southern Strategy and the white South, has voted for Republicans in the presidential campaigns. Ronald Reagan solidified the GOP South by launching his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town where three civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s. Standing beside a known segregationist, Reagan replayed Goldwater's "states' rights" theme, a code for stopping African-American advances. By combining anti-government sentiment with a religious message, he appealed to the evangelical movement and laid the groundwork for the birth of the Tea Party.  

Lee Atwater, who in 1981 worked in Reagan's White House, laid out the basic foundation of that strategy in an interview:

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can’t say 'nigger'—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'”

Trump made it clear in his opening salvo when he announced his candidacy when he denounced Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists. Jeb Bush joined in when he linked "anchor babies" to the Asian community without specifying the "birth tourism" phenomenon in which Chinese nationals would give birth to their children in the U.S. to guarantee American citizenship.

Thursday (Aug. 27) Carly Florina joined in the anti-Asian attacks against so-called "birth tourism," wherein foreign nationals visit the U.S. on tourist visas to give birth so their babies can claim U.S. citizenship. Birth tourism is a bogus issue - a distraction, really - as if ending this practice would solve the immigration problems that America faces.

RELATED: Fiorina makes some remarks about the Chinese

The accidental fatal shooting of a white woman this sumer in San Francisco by a dark-skinned undocumented immigrant who had been deported several times, was perfectly timed for the 2016 campaign season and occurred right after Trump's tirade against immigrants. Trump continues to recall "beautiful Kate Steinie" in his campaign speeches.

Add to this toxic stew the Tea Party and their sympathizers, pushing their Christian values and railing against big government, feminists and Planned Parenthood. That's much more easier for the mainstream media to report and repeat and repeat and repeat; and a whole lot more socially palatable than shouting, to quote Atwater again: "Nigger, nigger, nigger!"


Now that Trump is the GOP frontrunner and his rivals are trying to keep pace with his ridiculous statements, the rhetoric will most likely heat up even more than it has already. It will agitate their base, embolden their supporters such as the two men who beat up a Latino in Boston last week because they believed Trump's message. Trump initially shrugged his shoulders and called them "passionate" followers. He later denounced the violence.

RELATED: Anchor babies blowback continues 

In an article in the New Yorker last week, white power advocate Richard Spencer gave writer Evan Osnos an excellent, albeit scary, analysis of the Trump ascendency:

“'Trump, on a gut level, kind of senses that this is about demographics, ultimately. We’re moving into a new America.' Though Spencer doesn’t think Trump himself is a white nationalist, he believes he channels “an unconscious vision that white people have—that their grandchildren might be a hated minority in their own country. I think that scares us. They probably aren’t able to articulate it. I think it’s there. I think that, to a great degree, explains the Trump phenomenon. I think he is the one person who can tap into it.

"Jared Taylor of the white supremacist American Renaissance agrees. 'I’m sure he would repudiate any association with people like me, but his support comes from people who are more like me than he might like to admit.'”

It's clear that the old-line moderate Republicans have lost control of their party with its dramatic shift to the right. Republicans may even be thinking that courting the Asian, Latino and African/American vote may be a lost cause and put all their chips on the old reliable, trusted and tested Southern Strategy that has worked so well for them in the past. If that's the case, we can expect more of the hateful, race-baiting displayed by GOP candidates last week.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

All the GOP's 2016 presidential candidates went after the same angry, fearful white voter base.

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Using broken English, Trump mocks Asian negotiators: "We want deal"

NO! NO! NO! He didn't say that, did he? Did he? Unfortunately, he did.

At an Iowa campaign stop, businessman Donald Trump, frontrunner in a crowded Republican field may as well have said "Ching, chong!" Author of the book, "Art of the Deal." Trump played out an imaginary negotiation with Asians if he was elected President.

The Mocker

"Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, when these people walk into the room, they don't say, 'Oh hello, how's the weather, so beautiful outside, isn't it lovely? How are the Yankees doing? Oh they are doing wonderful, great,' " Trump said in his speech. Using broken English, he continued, "They say, 'We want deal.'"

Unbelievable! In my entire life, I have never seen a presidential candidate be so blatant and unapologetic with his racism against Asians.

“Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen Asian Americans portrayed as the perpetual foreigner – dismissing our strong American roots, ignoring our contributions and treating us as expendable,”  said Carl Hum of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

In the last few days, with the "anchor baby" controversy and now this, Republicans have demonstrated how much they value the Asian/American vote. The answer is: Not much!

Anchor babies: The blowback continues

YOU KNOW you're in trouble when Donald Trump starts making fun of you for something you said. Trump wasted no time turning his attention on Jeb Bush, his rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

"In a clumsy move to get out of his 'anchor babies' dilemma, where he signed that he would not use the term and now uses it, he blamed ASIANS," Trump tweeted. Trump then wrote, a few minutes later, "Asians are very offended that JEB said that anchor babies applies to them as a way to be more politically correct to Hispanics. A mess!" 

For once, he was right.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tries to clear up his controversial statements about "anchor babies."

Bush, claimed birthright citizenship was “the specific case of fraud being committed where there’s organized efforts–and frankly it’s more related to Asian people–coming into our country.” This follows his earlier statement that the term "anchor baby," a derogatory term used to describe the children of undocumented immigrants, was not offensive. In his attempt to clarify his statement, he also said he is NOT for the abolishment of the 14th Amendment and the use of the birthright citizenship clause, which he called "noble."

Despite his awkward attempt to mollify the Latino American community by claiming he meant in reference to Asians. It didn't take long to get a reaction. Asians/Americans almost blew up the social media networks talking about Bush's statement. One student, Redondo High (California) student Jason Fong, started #MyAmericanStory which has taken off in the Twitterverse. AngryAsianMan.com and Reappropriate.com among others chimed in with scathing critiques.

The Organization of Chinese Associations – Asian Pacific American Advocates issued a statement condemning Bush’s comments.

“Our immigrant communities have consistently been painted as an invasion force and the use of the term ‘anchor baby’ is a clear example of this,” said Michael W. Kwan, OCA National President. 

“Governor Bush has now doubled down on his original insensitivity with the use of the derogatory term ‘Anchor Baby’ by characterizing ‘Asian People’ as a whole as non-citizens looking to take advantage of the system. This faulty rhetoric makes millions of law-abiding Asians a target for anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes, which will help spread the myth that Asian Americans are somehow less American than white Americans.”

Lawmakers in the 48-member Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) are “strongly condemning” former Bush for linking the derogatory term “anchor babies” to Asian immigrants.

On Monday, when told in Spanish that many Latinos consider the term “anchor babies” to be an offensive slur, Bush defended himself, saying that his critics should “chill out.” The GOP presidential candidate added, “Frankly, it’s more related to Asian people coming into our country, having children, and taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship.”

Bush’s comments come at a time when the Republican presidential candidates are taking on more extreme and anti-immigrant positions to describe undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump was the first candidate to fully embrace the term “anchor baby,” while Bush has maintained that it isn’t offensive and he’ll keep using it until someone gives him a better word.

Several members of Congress aren’t pleased that Bush is trying to downplay the offensive nature of the term, which suggests that undocumented immigrant parents use their U.S. born children as an “anchor” to prevent them from being deported, by pivoting to the Asian community.

“As the representative of the only Asian American majority district in the continental United States, and as a proud American of Japanese descent, I strongly condemn these statements,” CAPAC Chair Emeritus and Rep. Mike Honda told ThinkProgress in an emailed statement. Honda and his family were thrown into a Japanese internment camp while his father served in the U.S. military during World War II.

Honda also stated that he considered the language to be a “slur against all immigrants” and that “The 14th Amendment of our Constitution guarantees citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, and we cannot stand by and let anyone diminish that right.”

“In Silicon Valley – one of the most diverse areas of our country – we celebrate people from all backgrounds and their contributions to our nation. As the representative of the only Asian American majority district in the continental United States, and as a proud American of Japanese descent, I strongly condemn these statements.”


Rep. Mark Takano of Riverside, CA considers Bush’s remarks to be “offensive, whether he is referencing Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans.” He emailed statement to ThinkProgress, saying, “This type of language is being carelessly used by not just Governor Bush, but by a number of Republican presidential nominee front runners. The GOP needs to realize this is not about being politically correct. It is about treating American citizens with the respect they deserve.”

“No matter which ethnic group you’re referring to, ‘anchor babies’ is a slur that stigmatizes children from birth,” CAPAC Chair and Rep. Judy Chu said in a statement. Chu is the first Chinese/American women elected to Congress. “We need a conversation that leads to a solution on visas and naturalization and seriously considers how we can integrate the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants already living and contributing here. All that is accomplished through talk of anchor-babies — be they from Latin America, Asia, Europe, or Africa — is to use xenophobic fears to further isolate immigrants.”

“It doesn’t matter which community the term is applied to,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a California Latina, issued an emailed statement, “Throwing around dehumanizing insults is unworthy of those seeking our nation’s highest office. ”

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who came to the United States as a young child, tweeted tersely: “Really Jeb? This is still remarkably offensive and out of touch, regardless of which group you’re referring to.”

RELATED: Anchor babies: Bush targets Asians

The so-called “birth tourism” to which Bush tried to divert attention — in which immigrant women travel to the United States to give birth so their babies will have U.S. citizenship — does happen, though infrequently and shouldn't be used to muddle his original reference to anchor babies.

A  2009 Pew Research Center study said that about 350,000 children are born to families where at least one parent is undocumented. However, 61 percent of those parents arrived in the U.S. before 2004, 30 percent arrived from 2004 and 2007, and only 9 percent arrived from 2008 and 2010. U.S. citizens can only sponsor their parents at age 21, two decades of uncertainty for undocumented parents who could still be flagged for deportation. 

Asian immigrants in the United States have long been characterized as an invasive force or a menace to whites. Laws were passed denying citizenship was directed at Asians in the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the 19th century. Anti-Asian laws forbidding land ownership and inter-racial marriage were in the books up to the mid-20th century.* No matter how long we've been in America, Asian Americans have always been seen as foreigners, strangers and outsiders.

*UPDATE: Earlier versions of this post said that the Chinese were the only people denied U.S. citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court's Dredd Scott Decision denied citizenship to anyone of African ancestry - free man or slave.

Bush's gaff does nothing to correct that impression of foreigness among the fearful followers of Bush and the rest of the GOP presidential wannabes.

Ironincally, several years back, Bush warned the Republicans to engage the Asian American electorate. He said in 2013:

"Asian-Americans are actually the canary in the coal mine, I believe, for Republicans ... If we have lost connectivity to emerging voters, not because of our policies so much, but because we are not engaged in issues of importance to them, then I think we pay a price."

Right, Mr. Bush.

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