Court upholds California's sanctuary laws

UPDATED April 19 1 p.m. to include statement from ICE Out of California coalition.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed Thursday (April 18) with a Sacramento federal judge who ruled that California's so-called sanctuary laws don’t conflict with federal immigration statutes. 

The three-judge panel also upheld a California measure that requires private employers to alert workers before federal immigration inspections, while directing the lower-court judge to re-examine part of a third law that authorizes the state attorney general to inspect facilities that house immigrants not detained for criminal offenses.

A federal judge Thursday (April 18) ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to immediately halt California’s so-called sanctuary laws.

The Ninth Circuity three-judge panel agreed with the lower court's Judge John Mendez, in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, who denied a request by the federal Department of Justice for a preliminary injunction against California laws that limit cooperation with immigration enforcement officials.

“Today’s ruling marks a defeat for the Trump administration’s hateful and discriminatory agenda," stated the steering committee of the ICE Out of California coalition, including Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, California Immigrant Policy Center, California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

"With the 'sanctuary state' law upheld in full, it is imperative for local governments to separate themselves from the inhumane business of detaining and deporting community members," the coalition statement continued.

The legal question at the heart of this lawsuit is well-settled across the ideological spectrum: the federal government cannot force local governments to do its dirty work.”

Judge Mendez ruled that the Trump administration failed to confront California’s primary concern: that total state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement would make Californians not more safe, but less. 

“The historic police powers of the State include the suppression of violent crime and preservation of community safety,” the judge adding that the “ebb of tensions between communities and the police underscores the delicate nature of this relationship. Even perceived collaboration with immigration enforcement could upset the balance California aims to achieve.

The appeals court concluded that  Washington doesn’t have the constitutional power to require California’s assistance in immigration enforcement.

SB 54, known as the California Values Act, bars local officials from informing federal officials about immigrants’ release dates from jail except in serious criminal cases. was signed into law by former then-Gov. Jerry Brown.

“SB 54 may well frustrate the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts,” the court ruled. “However, whatever the wisdom of the underlying policy adopted by California, that frustration is permissible, because California has the right, pursuant to the anticommandeering rule, to refrain from assisting with federal efforts.”

It is not known if the DOJ will appeal Mendez' decision.

In a statement to NPR, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the sanctuary state policy protects "criminal aliens."

"To be clear, ICE neither expects nor wants, local law enforcement agencies to participate in immigration enforcement in the community; but as law enforcement officers, we do expect our partners to participate in protecting public safety," ICE told NPR.

California, with the country's larges undocumented population and immigrant community has consistently challenged many of Trump's immigration decrees with varying success.

Trump has criticized California for not supporting his policies on illegal immigration. He  threatened just this week to send migrants caught crossing the southern border into the U.S. to so-called sanctuary cities -- most of them Democratic strongholds -- if they can no longer be legally detained.

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Trump stacking courts with activist judges

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Judicial nominee Kenneth Kiyul Lee was interviewed by Sen. Kamala Harris during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Wednesday.

Even after Donald Trump is gone from the White House and his dark chapter is subjected to severe analysis, (hopefully, sooner than later) his impact will continue to haunt the country through the record number of conservative judges that he's placing on the bench.

In the first three years of the Trump, the Senate has already confirmed 200 federal judges, and the pace has accelerated under Senate Leader McConnell, who senses time is of essence because of Republican losses in the upcoming Nov. 2020 elections.

In a tense hearing in front of the Senate Judicial Committee, both California senators, Kamala Harris and ranking member Diane Feinstein, tried to delay a vote on Kenneth Kiyul Lee, Donald Trump’s nominee for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (March 13) wasted no time confronting Lee about decades-old writings on race, HIV and LGBTQ issues.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee's ranking member, said that she was disappointed that Lee, a Los Angeles attorney and former counsel for the George W. Bush administration, had been granted a hearing at all and hoped that his nomination never makes it to a vote.

In a letter to chair Linsay Graham, Harris and Feinstein cited Lee's failure to turn over more than 75 documents as part of his confirmation questionnaire, including college writings about AIDS, political correctness and feminism.

The Senators noted that this not only reflects an intention to obstruct the vetting process, but also suggests Lee may continue to hold extreme and controversial views, which, if confirmed, would place him well outside the mainstream.

“Mr. Lee’s repeated failure to provide responsive materials to this Committee is a breach of the Committee’s standards and processes — it is not a partisan issue,” the senators wrote.

Since January 2019, Lee has supplemented portions of his record five times, revealing more than 75 articles that he initially failed to disclose.

During Wednesday's hearing, Harris, a former prosecuting attorney, pressed Kenneth Lee, a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on his views about voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals. According to the Sentencing Project, as of 2010, 1 out of every 13 Black voters had lost the right to vote due to felony convictions, in contrast to the only 1 in 56 non-Black voters who had lost their voting rights due to felony convictions.

“Do you believe that disparate impact is relevant in deciding whether a law that disenfranchises an individual convicted of a crime should be upheld?” asked Harris.

Lee refused to answer the question, directly. "I will follow the precedent, whatever it may be," Lee said. In an attempt to end this line of questioning, Lee added, "As a judicial nominee, I think it’s inappropriate to opine on issues that may come up before me if I am confirmed ..."

Two other controversial judicial nominees, Neomi Reo, who had her hearing a day before Lee's hearing, and Brett Kavanaugh's infamous hearing months earlier, used similar phrasing to avoid answering tough questions from Democrats. All of Trump's  recent nominees for judges have been vetted by the Federalist Society, a conservative think tank.

Other writings by Lee that troubled Harris was on the subject of undocumented immigrants' work ethic and 

Feinstein grilled Lee about an article he wrote in 1994 in which he claimed that "nine out of 10 people with AIDS are gay or drug users.”

Like other Trump judicial nominees, when confronted with past writings, Lee expressed regret and embarrassment over the article and said his views have changed. He noted that at 18 he “didn’t know science.”

“I absolutely would not write that today,” Lee said. “I truly regret writing that ... Looking at that now, 26 years later, I am just embarrassed by it.” Lee said that he knows someone living with HIV, and the idea that that person could read his past writings was “mortifying.” He also said his writings were a “misguided attempt” to support the Reagan administration’s policy on HIV.

The two California senators failed to return the blue slip given to senators when a nominee would preside in their state. Senators would write on the blue slip their recommendations on a nominee and traditionally, the Judiciary Committee would abide by the home state senators' opinions. Not returning the blue slip was an obvious indication that Feinstein and Harris objected to Lee.

However, Graham bucked tradition and proceeded with the hearing, angering the senators. "Around here," warned Feinstein, "what goes around, comes around."

Despite objections from Harris and Feinstein, it appears that a vote on Lee's nomination will go forward. 

The reason there are so many openings on the bench is because the GOP dominated Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, stalled or refused to hold hearings on scores of Obama nominees including Merrick Garland, his  choice to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February of 2016.

After Trump was elected, the Senate -- still dominated by the Republicans --  has approved a record number of judges nominated by Trump successfully leaning the judiciary to the right and threatening Social Security, Medicare and all the gains in human and civil rights in the last 60 years.

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State of the Union: Donald Trump didn't understand the women's applause

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Women members of Congress congratulate themselves.

DONALD TRUMP's 5,200 words resulted in the longest State of the Union speech ever in which the women in white stole the limelight.

Asian Americans were mentioned in Donald Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday (Feb. Trump said that African Americans, Latinos and Asians have the lowest unemployment rates ever.

NBC fact checkers say Trump taking credit for this trend is misleading.

It is true that unemployment rates for black and Latino Americans hit record lows last year, although this economic trend is not new. Unemployment numbers were trending downwards since 2009, when President Obama's  economic policies started to take effect, reversing the trend towards recession started under President Bush.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment percentages for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have been noticeably decreasing since 2010 and continue to do so, says NBC.

"According to the most recent information from BLS, in January of 2019, the black unemployment rate stood at 6.8 percent. Last May, it dropped to 5.9 percent, the lowest percentage ever recorded. Similarly, the current unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans leaves them at 4.9 percent, up from a record low of 4.4 percent in October and December 2018. In addition, Asian unemployment rates remain low at 3.1 percent in January 2019, up from a low of 2.2 percent in May 2018."

NBC also cites that among women over 20, the unemployment rate in January 2019 was at 3.6 percent. That's up from a low of 3.3 percent in May and September of last year.

Despite these numbers, current and former White House economists have debated the legitimacy of Trump’s claims that his administration, versus the Obama administration, has been the cause of this economic success.

"Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for President Obama called the numbers 'a continuation of a steady trend,'" says NBC.

His mention of higher employment numbers for women drew an unexpected response. The record number of female  members of the House, all of them newly elected Democrats, erupted in self-congratulatory applause resulting in the highlight of the evening.

Many of the women, including the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, dressed in white in tribute to the women's suffrage movement. Trump obviously wasn't expected the dancing and laughter that broke out among the mainly Democratic members when he talked about record levels of female employment in the US economy. Trump didn't get it. He mistook their exhuberance as agreement for what he was saying.

'No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women who have filled 58% of the newly created jobs last year,' Trump said before the large group of women stood up and cheered. 'You weren't supposed to do that,' Trump joked before pointing out that the midterms had seen the largest number of women elected to Congress.

The New York Times fact checkers also found:

Trump continued to spread falsehoods about the alleged crime wave caused by immigrants.

He said the "lawless state of our southern border" is a threat to Americans' safety and well being. He said he was asking lawmakers to "defend our very dangerous" border.

Still, studies have found that immigrants (legal and undocumented) commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.

He failed to mention the thousands of children separated from their families and who remain in detention centers around the country.

“I believe Democrats and Republicans can and should work together on issues like rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.  But the President will need to match words with deeds, and we will see if his desire for bipartisanship will align with his actions after tonight," said Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY.

Trump's appeal for unity and togetherness ring hollow considering he is the source of much of the divisiveness and polarization that reigns over the country today.

Editor's Note: This is a developing story. Check back later for further reactions.

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TGIF Feature: Chef Ming joins #ChefsForFeds to feed furloughed federal workers

Celebrity chef Ming Tsai has joined the growing number of restaurants and chefs offering meals to federal workers who haven't been paid for over a month.

The 800,000 government workers who have been held hostage by Donald Trump haven't received a paycheck in 35 days and counting.

Federal employees have been lining up for his Shutdown Dumplings since Monday at Tsai's Blue Dragon restaurant in Boston. He's offering the dumplings for free to anyone who shows a government ID.

“The idea to offer Shutdown Dumplings came from idea that the restaurant industry is one big family,” Tsai told HuffPost. “Shutdown Dumplings came to be because we wanted to give back to government employees affected by the shutdown in a way that we knew how ― through food.”

Tsai says he was inspired by his friend and fellow chef Jose Andrés, who opened up a World Central Kitchen and pantry in Washington D.C. to help feed the thousands of government workers. Andrés founded his nonprofit after a hurricane devastated Puerto Rico to feed the island's residents. Since then, WCK has moved on to feed victims of other disasters, including the victims of the California wildfires.

Andrés reached out to Tsai after announcing #ChefsForFeds would go national in a tweet he posted last Saturday.

“We believe this is a national food emergency,” Andrés said. Restaurants across the nation have joined the movement after hearing Andrés' appeal.

"Count me in," said Tsai when contacted by #ChefsForFeds. "How can I not?" 

“If all of us chefs do a fraction of what José and World Central Kitchen has accomplished, the world will be a better place,” Tsai said. “I am blessed I have the capacity and team to do my small part.”

Several other Boston area restaurants have joined Tsai's efforts.

Mei Mei launched its #ChefsForFeds offer Tuesday (Jan. 23). “Our plan as of right now is between 2 to 7 p.m. every day, we’re going to be offering $15 off a meal with a federal ID, and we’re going to be able to do that for up to 20 meals per day,” restaurant cofounder Irene Li tells the Herald.

“We are very much a community-oriented business, and we work with a lot of community organizations that focus on hunger,” says Li. “Any time there’s an opportunity for us to be feeding people who are for whatever reason not able to pay . . . we’re really happy about that. What’s nice in this case is that feeding furloughed workers is not a particularly partisan issue. It’s a clearly positive thing to do regardless of your political beliefs. It’s not that often we get to do something that’s relevant to politics but not inherently politically charged.”

Andrés has been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with World Central Kitchen; originally from Spain.

World Central Kitchen put a volunteer form on its website looking for restaurants, food trucks, nonprofits, and businesses interested in serving federal workers in their communities.

The first #ChefsForFeds kitchen opened at the ThinkFoodLab at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW last Wednesday. World Central Kitchen announced it had served 4,400 meals in the first day. The Hill reported that 5,500 meals were served on Thursday, followed by 6,488 on Friday.

“Isn’t it ironic,” Tsai tells HuffPost. “Eight thousand people . . . were fed in D.C. because the president wants to build a wall to keep out immigrants, but an immigrant is feeding your federal employees.”

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Supreme Court won't hear DACA case this year

THE THOUSANDS of young immigrants taking part in the Obama-era program that shields them from deportation can breathe a little easier for at least another year.

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Tuesday (Jan. 22) not to take on the Trump administration's request to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, it means that DACA will remain in place for the nearly 800,000 participants who were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents.

The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 to provide work permits and protection from deportation to people who, in many cases, have no memory of any home other than the United States.

Of the 1.2 million immigrants who were eligible for DACA, 120,000 were Asian. These immigrants are from all parts of Asia, with significant numbers from Korea, China, and India.

Though Asians account for a significant and growing population of undocumented immigrants in the United States, they had some of the lowest application rates to DACA. According to the Migration Policy Institute, only about 20% of the eligible Korean population applied, and only 23% of eligible Filipinos and 20% of eligible Indians applied. But 82% of eligible Mexicans applied.

DACA participants would not be in this legal imbo if Donald Trump hadn't decided to end the program created by President Barack Obama. He didn't give a reason for ending the program in early 2018. 

Since then, the courts have ruled his edict illegal and kept the program in place. The Trump administration has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the lower court rulings.

The earliest the justices could consider the case would be in its next term which starts in October. The High Court would then take months before it could render a decision.

Until then, DACA participants whose applications are due to expire are being allowed to renew.

On another front, Trump is using the DACA program as a bargaining chip in his attempts to build his Damn Wall on the border with Mexico. He has offered to extend DACA another three years if the Democrats would approve $5 billion for his wall.

Democrats have rejected his so-called compromise so Trump is continuing to refuse to approve funding to keep the government operating. About 800,000 fedral employees have not been paid for over a month. Most have been furloughed but about half are being asked to work for no pay.

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Asian American Democrats blast Trump's speech full of lies

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DONALD TRUMP's speech last night (Dec. 8) could have been much worse; he could have declared a national emergency, diverted funds from other parts of the government and have the military build his Stupid Wall on the border with Mexico.

Instead, the speech he delivered in prime time on all the networks was the same old drivel he's been spouting since he declared his candidacy for president in 2015. His primary goal was to appeal to his base of supporters to put pressure on Congress to include $5-billion  for his border wall in the 2019-2020 budget.

Speaking in the formal setting of the Oval Office and reading from a teleprompter, Trump appeared subdued compared to when he speaks to his cheering supporters.

"Donald Trump sounds like a broken record," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, "He reverts to the same old script -- demagoguery and xenophobia -- because that's all he knows how to do. ' 

"The fact is that even the Department of Homeland Security says the Southern border, where the Trump administration wants . to build a wall is more difficult to cross without authorization today than ever before," she said. 

"Apprehensions are at the lowest rate ever, And so much he wants to paint a different picture, immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native born Americans, Furthermore, we know that the majority of drugs come in at legal points of entry -- not where there is no wall. This has never been about security. It is simply political.

"President Trump is right: it is about right and wrong -- and what he has done and continues to do is just wrong; separating families, shutting down legal asylum, imprisoning more and more people in immigration prisons," Jayapal said.

"... This speech belongs in the dustbin -- it is time to move and get things done for our country."

Jayapal was among the Democratic AAPI politicians who watched the 10 minute speech.

“For over 18 days, he has misled the American people about the situation at the southern border and the need for a border wall," said Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, in a press release. 

"Only President Trump is responsible for the government shutdown and the impasse between the White House and Congress. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats have passed clean spending bills to fund the federal government that are identical to the ones that the Senate passed back in December.

"Democrats support smart, effective border security solutions, not an ineffective border wall. The only person who is keeping federal employees from receiving their paychecks is President Trump. Democrats are ready to re-open the federal government if only President Trump would agree to fund the federal government at levels the Republican Senate has already approved.”

Cambodians, & Vietnamese Americans on edge, fighting protesting deportations.

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Hundreds protested [ossible deportations of Vietnamese Americans in Westminister, Caalif.

ASAM NEWS & VIEWS FROM ThE EDGE

VIETNAMESE AMERICANS rallied Saturday in Orange County's Little Saigon to protest a move by the Trump administration to clear the way for the deportation of Vietnamese American refugees.

“Bao ve gia dinh. Bao ve gia dinh,” protesters repeated, demanding protection against separating families. More than 300,000 Vietnamese Americans and nationals live in Orange County, the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, according to KTLA.  It includes parts of Westminster, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Many of them came into the country in the 1990s as refugees of the Vietnam war.

Xuyen Dong-Matsuda, a mental health worker, urged the crowd of about 100 Saturday in Little Saigon to “fight for those who need our passion and our help.”

The White House is trying to renegotiate an agreement with Vietnam that protects refugees from deportation. A new agreement would enable the U.S. to deport some 8,000 Vietnamese Americans who committed a crime-even for minor offenses that they have already served jail sentences.

“We need to open our hearts and minds to offer others a second chance,” said Lan Nguyen, a filmmaker at the rally. Lan also expressed support for the Cambodian community which is now also living under the same threat.

Meanwhile, three Khmer American men in detention in the state of Washington and awaiting deportation to Cambodia have been freed, according to the International Examiner. 

In Washington state, three members of the so called Washington 7 have been freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

The Northwest Immigrants Right Project (NWIRP), Foster Pepper PLLC, Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (FIGHT), and the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) and the ad hoc response group called the Khmer Anti-deportation Advocacy Group of Washington (KhAAG) worked to get two of the men freed.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee granted an emergency pardon for  Roeuth An. His mother recalled the shock she felt when he was taken into custody by ICE.

“When he [An] was five, the Khmer Rouge took him away from me, they don’t let you live with your parents anymore, ” said Ms. Lorng Raing, mother of Mr. Roeuth An. “When they [ICE] took him away, all those emotions came rushing back to me,” she told the International Examiner.

After the U.S. bullied Cambodia into accepting deportees, Cambodian officials agreed to accept more deportees from the U.S. Forty-six Cambodian Americans are supposed to be deported Monday (Dec. 17), the largest number of Cambodian deportees in history.

Most of the detained Cambodian Americans set to be deported have committed a crime for which they already served their sentence.

Attorneys have petitioned Gov. Jerry Brown to pardon the Cambodians which would prevent their deportation. The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven formerly incarcerated who otherwise would have been deported to Cambodia, drawing the ire of Donald Trump, whose administration has stepped up efforts to deport immigrants with criminal convictions.

In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked one of Brown’s pardon's to a 37-year-old Borey Ai, who killed a woman when he was 14-years old, for which he served a 19-year sentence.

The court gave no reason for the rejection, but earlier noted it only had the authority to do so in the case of an “abuse of power.” Brown’s pardon would have effectively stopped Ai’s deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

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Sunday Read: New Jersey, ICE appear headed to showdown over immigrants' arrests

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New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewa announces the state's new Immigrant Trust Initiative.

UPDATED Dec. 9 to report new ICE sweep in New Jersey.

NEW JERSEY and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement appear to be heading for a showdown as ICE officials threaten to increase deportations of immigrant residents of the state.

In an apparent response to state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal's new Immigrant Trust Directive, ICE officials warn there that they have no choice but to enforce immigration laws and will likely mean an increase in arrest of immigrants living in the state illegally.

Tthe day after Grewal announced the new rules, ICE agents conducted a 5-day sweep in 16 of New Jersey's 21 counties placing 105 individuals in ICE custody. Immigration officials said on Friday (Dec. 7) that the raid was planned long before the Attorney General issued the new directive.

Grewal, the son of Indian immigrants, became the country's first Sikh American attorney general when he was appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy in January 2018.  

He announced the new new rules last month surrounded by the state's top law enforcement officials. The Immigrant Trust Directive -- which include limiting when police can turn over jailed immigrants to ICE agents -- was strongly criticized by federal immigration officials who said New Jersey was creating a “state-sanctioned haven” for unauthorized immigrants.

“As a result of limited cooperation with local and state authorities, ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community,” ICE officials said in a statement.

“We don’t respond to threats. We’re focused on protecting New Jersey’s residents from harm,” said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.

Immigrant rights groups were quick to respond at ICE’s threats.

“The reality is ICE is already using unconstitutional tactics and violating people’s civil rights. Their intimidation of immigrant communities and families is the exact reason New Jersey state and local leadership choose again and again not to engage in civil immigration enforcement," said Johanna Calle, director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, an immigrant advocacy group.

• Cannot stop, question, arrest, search, or detain any individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration status;
• Cannot ask the immigration status of any individual, unless doing so is necessary to the ongoing investigation of a serious offense and relevant to the offense under investigation;
• Cannot participate in civil immigration enforcement operations conducted by ICE;
• Cannot provide ICE with access to state or local law enforcement resources, including equipment, office space, databases, or property, unless those resources are readily available to the public;
• Cannot allow ICE to interview an individual arrested on a criminal charge unless that person is advised of his or her right to a lawyer.

Calle said she hopes the attorney general’s directive will lead to a better relationship between immigrant groups and the local police.

"Nationwide, cities and localities that have limited collaboration with this agency have lower rates of crimes and better relationship between local law enforcement and immigrant communities. There is no truth to ICE’s claims which uses racist rhetoric to legitimize its tactics,” Calle said.

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FilAm attorney George Conway helps form legal group opposing Trump

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George Conway, right, and his wife Kellyanne Conway at Donald Trump's inauguration.

GEORGE CONWAY III is at it again.

The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said he would rather "move to Australia" than to vote for Donald Trump again.

The Filipino American lawyer also spearheaded the formation of a new legal group, called Checks and Balances, providing a platform for other conservative lawyers to voice their opposition to policies of Donald Trump that violation of “timeless principles” and constitutional norms.

Conway was being interviewed by Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery” during which he confessed, "I don't feel comfortable being a Republican anymore."

Despite the prominent role played by his wife in the Trump administration, earlier this year, he left the GOP. “I think the Republican Party has become something of a personality cult.”

The political evolution of Conway began at the start of Trump's first year as the White House occupant when he discouraged any consideration for a role in the new administration.

Since January of this year, Conway has been more open in criticizing Trump. Using social media and writing opeds, Conway is no longer hiding the fact that he's not a fan of Trump''s attacks the justice system, especially the Department of Justice, the firing of former FBI director James Comey and the investigation into Russian interference with U.S. elections.

The formation of Checks and Balances was another act to counter the legal excesses of the Trump administration. The new group of conservative and libertarian lawyers from influential Federalist Society, was formed to highlight the Trump administration's perceived flouting of constitutional and legal norms, reports the New York Times.

Below is the mission statement of Checks and Balances:

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Since this post was first published, George Conway and Kellyanne Conway have divorced. For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

POLL: AAPI voters' dislike of Trump show up in battleground states

ASAM NEWS

A NON-PARTISAN election-eve poll conducted by the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund found Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are angry at Donald Trump and took their outrage to the ballot box.

The poll focused on six states where there are contested elections-Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas. Included in the poll are 70 House battleground districts.

Those Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders surveyed say they voted for Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 72% to 24%.

Top issues for AAPI voters in these battleground states were health care costs, 33%; the economy, 21%; and immigration, 18%.
“Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are making their voices heard this election cycle on the issues that remain important to our communities such as healthcare, immigration, and the economy,” said Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. “Our communities make up more than five percent of voters in eight states and 108 congressional districts, and the poll results indicate the increasing recognition that our communities are important segments of the American voting electorate.”

71% Asian and Pacific Islander American voters in battleground districts say Trump and his GOP party are normalizing sexism and sexual harassment against women in America.

“Asian American and Pacific Islander voters are headed into the 2018 midterms angry about the president’s words and deeds and clearly rejecting the Republican Party’s politics of fear and division,” said Taeku Lee of Asian American Decisions. “In stark contrast to the 2014 midterms, AAPI voters are also being mobilized and are engaged in unprecedented numbers.”

75% of Asian and Pacific Islander American voters in battleground districts encouraged friends or family to register and/or vote.

“This year’s poll reveals that Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters are mobilized like never before, with initial results pointing to an increase in early voting and other forms of political participation, like, encouraging friends or family to vote, donating to campaigns and attending events and rallies,” said EunSook Lee, Director of the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund.

“Commissioned by a cross-sector of organizations to capture a fuller, more accurate picture of the increasingly diverse American electorate, the nonpartisan poll sheds unprecedented light on how African American, AAPI, Latino, Native American, and white voters engaged in the 2018 midterm elections.”

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AAPI Vote 2018: Thai American candidate has Trump defender Devin Nunes running scared.

JANZ FOR CONGRESS

Democrat Andrew Janz, center, seeks to unseat incumbent Devin Nunes in California's Contressionals District 22.

EVEN THOUGH the polls show Rep. Devin Nunes ahead of his Democratic rival, Andrew Janz, the Republican lawmaker is running nervous.

For the first time, the eight-term conservative congressman representing a district dominated by Republicans, a rarity in blue-state California, he is facing an opponent who has even stanch Republicans questioning their political loyalties.

"He's made a decision he can pretty much do what he wants and ignore local concerns...if he just nationalizes this whole race," said Liz Mair, a Republican who runs the Swamp Accountability Project and is opposing Nunes as part of her organization's effort to protect Mueller's Russia investigation.

Recent polls suggest Nunes' lead has been considerably narrowed and show him ahead  by as little as five to eight points. His challenger, Thai-American Janz, has never before run for office but has raised more than $8 million, a staggering amount for a political newcomer in a heavily Republican district.

Still, Nunes holds a fund-raising edge thanks to large contributions from outside of California. While Janz is not receiving any financial help from the Democratic National Party, he has received only about 28 percent of his support from outside his state, according to Open Secrets, Nunes has received more than half of the $11.6 million he's raised from outside California.

In the days before the Nov. 6 Midterm Elections, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter that analyzes elections across the U.S., downgraded the Valley district from “solid” Republican to “likely” Republican, giving more of a chance to Janz, reports the Fresno Bee. The “likely” rating means the congressional race “has the potential to become engaged,” but is still not considered competitive.

“This Central Valley race has attracted more dollars than any other in the country, yet is still one of the least competitive,” the report said in new ratings released Tuesday (Oct. 30).

Nunes' controversial actions as chair of the House Intelligence Committee have generated harsh criticism that he is covering for the president and not conducting the panel's business in a bipartisan way.  

He has not held a public town hall in years and is rarely seen in District 22 between campaigns every two years. Critics say it's difficult to get a meeting with him and his local offices are closed most of the week. This campaign year, Nunes stages invitation-only events and prefers to run a campaign from afar, using a massive amount of TV advertising and websites geared to tell his stilted  version of the news.

California's District 22

Source: U.S. Censu

His hometown newspaper, the Fresno Bee, which had endorsed him in past years, endorsed Janz when Nunes refused to meet with the newspaper's editorial board. In retaliation, taking a cue from Trump's attacks on the "fake media," Nunes mailed out a 40-page booklet, which probably cost a hefty sum, attacking the newspaper.

Rather than run on local issues, such as fixing agreements between the state and federal governments over water allocations, Nunes has chosen to play up national issues such as his role defending Trump against allegations of Russian campaign interference and stoking fear with this year's GOP boogeyman -- immigrants.

While the district has voted Republican in the last few presidential races, Janz hopes the Democrat's Blue Wave -- spurred by the women's vote and young people -- materializes enough to overcome the historically conservative district.

"The Russia issue is relevant insofar as it takes away the political capital that he has now in Washington to focus on what people care about here," Janz told NPR. Janz says he's the one who can give local representation to the district. "I think that this race is about taking back the Central Valley."

SCREEN CAPTURE

A billboard in California's Congressional District 22, jabs at incumbent Devin Nunes'  attacks of the Mueller probe.

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