Suit filed to prevent moving historic documents of Asian immigrants & indigenous people

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The national archives and Records Administration building contains documents important to families based in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Washington state seeks to block the move of historical archives that document the history of Asian Americans and Indigenous Americans in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

The state's Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Jan. 4 that his office filed a lawsuit against the federal government for illegally proceeding with the sale of the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) building in Seattle which houses the documents.

Among the files stored at the building are some 50,000 documents related to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which forced Chinese immigrants to go through a discriminatory application process meant to curb Chinese migration.

“The Archives are critical partners in the conservation of our community’s history,” said Connie So, president of OCA Asian Pacific Advocates – Greater Seattle Chapter. “Most Chinese Americans left few records of their lives and history prior to 1950, making the Archive’s treasure trove of files related to the Chinese Exclusion Act all the more precious."

The federal government plans to ship the National Archives building’s irreplaceable, un-digitized records more than a thousand miles away to archive centers in Kansas City, Missouri and Riverside, California.

"This will effectively eliminate public access to the records," says Ferguson.

Twenty-nine federally recognized tribes, Alaskan tribal entities, and tribal communities from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska, as well as nine community organizations, historical preservation societies and museums and the state of Oregon joined Ferguson’s lawsuit.

The National Archives building in Seattle stores exclusive and un-digitized tribal and treaty records, as well as Chinese Exclusion Act case files and records regarding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The records are invaluable resources for researchers, historians and individuals seeking information about their family history or heritage.

The fight to keep the archives in Seattle began about a year ago when it was learned that a little known 5-person federal panel, the Public Buildings Reform Board, recommended closure of the facility so it could be sold. No one was notified about the plans and there was no request for public comment. 

After months of contentious back-and-forths between the state and the PBRB, in October 2020, the PBRB decided that it would sell the Archives building in Seattle early this year as part of a bundled sale along with 11 other federal properties around the country. It buried the details of the pending sale deep in a 74-page document on its website. 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Photographs of immigrants are stored at the National Archives in Seattle.

The Seattle archive facility houses original case files for people who entered the country through ports in Portland and Seattle. These case files includeThe National Archives in Seattle also contains 50,000 case files related to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was passed to limit the number of Chinese laborers entering the U.S. Individuals applying for entry into the country under the Chinese Exclusion Act had to go through an extensive application process.

The Seattle archive facility houses original case files for people who entered the country through ports in Portland and Seattle. These case files include identification photographs, biographical information, interrogation notes, copies of federal and local court records, as well as personal letters and photographs. These files, created to discriminate against Chinese workers, have become a critical resource to Chinese Americans looking for information about their ancestors.

A dedicated group of local volunteers has been working to index these files, creating an extensive database of family history. If the federal government moves these files, the volunteers will not be able to complete their work or help people learn about their family history.

Among the Asian American groups that have joined the Washington lawsuit are the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, OCA Asian Pacific Advocates – Greater Seattle Chapter, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and the Wing Luke Memorial Foundation.

One potential path offering a ray of hope is that the Office of Management and Budget will have a new leader soon. President-elect Joe Biden has recommended Neera Tanden to become the director of the OMB, which oversees the PBRB. As an Asian American, it is hoped that she might be more sympathetic to those who want to keep the archives in the Pacific Northwest.

111-Year-Old activist who lived through the Chinese Exclusion Act dies from COVID-19

ASAM NEWS

Foon Hay Lum is a renowned and well respected Chinese Canadian activist who at 111 years old passed away from COVID-19 on the evening of April 24 at the Mon Sheong Homes for the Aged. 

Lum is one of Canada’s oldest women and her life is a legacy of work advocating for the empowerment of Chinese Canadians.

Lum was instrumental in securing an apology and compensation from the Canadian Government in 2006 for all Chinese Canadians who paid the head tax, with the then Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper making an apology in the House of Commons. Lum herself was in the House of Commons on that momentous that day to personally witness the apology being made. She lived through the Canadian Chinese Exclusion Act 1923 which caused her to be separated from her husband for more than 30 years. Sadly, her death sees her final separation from her family due to the ban on visitors to long-term-care homes, and she wasn’t able to be with her family.

Lum spent most of her life talking about issues of racism and was not afraid to get real about it, as former National President for the Chinese Canadian National Council Amy Go stated (via The Star). This is an organization, which Lum was a founding member.

“Many people felt embarrassed and ashamed and didn’t want to talk about racism. But this was never a problem for her.

“You have to remember what generation she was a part of,” said Go. “That strength she had to name something that was wrong and to take action, that for me was amazing courage.”

Lum’s life reads like a story of love, loss, regret and then new beginnings. Her life of activism for the betterment of Chinese Canadians started when she was 60-years old. 

Born in 1908 in Xinhui, Guangdong, China, Lum married Chinese Canadian immigrant Nam Jack Lum when she was 18, when Nam Jack returned to China to find a bride. 

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act 1923, Lum couldn’t follow her husband Nam Jack who had to return to Canada to keep his immigration status. This legislated racism against the Chinese ended in 1947. 

However, Nam Jack had to work hard in a Toronto laundry and it it took him another seven years before he saved up enough to return to China to reunite with Lum and they stayed together in Xinhui for three years where they had two children. He then had to return to Canada again and it was another 2-3 more years before Lum and her two kids could migrate to Canada to be fully reunited as a family. This took 33 years all up. 

Sadly, 12 years after the family was reunited in Toronto, Nam Jack passed away. Over their 45-year marriage, that 12 years was their longest period together.

California governor ends his presser by calling out racism, brings up The Chinese Exclusion Act...

SCREEN CAPTURE / MSNBC

California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the growing attacks against Asian Americans.

California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ended his dramatic Thursday press conference announcing a statewide order for residents to stay at home in an attempt to fight the spread of COVID-19, with an acknowledgement of the growing number of attacks on Asian Americans.

He said that he came from an area in the statewhere "anti-Chinese bigotry led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, a black eye in the history of the United States of America...

"One thing I also want to express: The deep, deep recognition of the xenophobia, racism being perpetuated against Asians in our state. We've seen a huge increase of people assaulting people on the basis of where they were born and how they look. 

"We're better than that. We're watching (for) that and we're going to enforce that more aggressively. I hope that people put down their bigotry, their bias. In a state where 27% of us are foreign born, a state that is truly universal, the most diverse state, the world's most diverse democracy, that in order to meet this moment, we have to recognize our common humanity."

His remarks concluded an announcement urging everyone in the state of 40 million people to stay at home. If nothing were to be done, Newsom predicted that in a worst case scenario, 56% of the state, or about 25 million people, will contract the virus.

Newsom hopes the strategy will slow down the exponentially increasing rate of the virus' spread. "We want to flatten the curve," he said.

In a follow-up announcement Friday, the governor announced the purchase of two hospitals that were having financial difficulty, including Seton Medical Center that was scheduled to go into bankruptcy within weeks. Seton is the largest employer and major medical facility in Daly City, a predominantly Asian American municipality.

The state's purchase of the two hospitals, including the recently shuttered St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles County, would add about 700 beds for the expected surge of coronavirus patients. The state, said Newsom, is also looking into converting hotels and college dormitories into places where those with the virus could be placed in quarantine and monitored by medical professionals.

Also Friday, the state's lawmakers passed measures giving the state broad authority to spend up to $1 billion “for any purpose” so that California can implement the drastic measures in Newsom’s declaration of the coronavirus emergency.

Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh dodges questions about the Chinese Exclusion Act

ASAM NEWS

SUPREME COURT nominee Brett Kavanaugh dodged a wide variety of questions during his Senate confirmation hearing, invoking the classic “I don’t answer hypothetical questions” line or that he couldn’t talk about pending cases.

That’s why one had to chuckle when U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, D-CA, asked him about a case more than a century old. This one involved the constitutionality of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Watch this four minute video to look at how Kavanugh refused to answer almost any question from Harris, including the one about the Chinese Exclusion Act, known by legal scholars as Chae Chan Ping v. United States.

“In the 1889 Chinese Exclusion case, the Supreme Court permitted a ban on Chinese people entering the United States. The court said Chinese people are quote impossible to assimilate with our people unquote and said they were immigrating in numbers quote approaching an invasion. This case has never been explicitly overruled. Can you tell me was the United States Supreme Court correct in holding that Chinese people could be banned from entering our country,” asked Harris, an Indian American lawmaker.

Kavanaugh acknowledged the ruling reflected discriminatory attitudes of the times. It was a simple yes or no answer, yet Kavanaugh hemmed and hawed.

“Senator, I don’t want to opine on this particular case without looking at it or studying the discrimination,” he finally answered.

What a copout!

The question is why wouldn't Kavanaugh want to repudiate an obviously racist decision (that is at least as awful as Plessey v. Ferguson) that remains a stain on the Supreme Court to this day?

Here’s the reason. The Chae Chan Ping case is still an important precedent that has been and continues to be relied on by the government and the Supreme Court to uphold the power of the President to keep out foreigners whenever he wants to and for whatever reason. It is the whole basis for the Muslim Travel Ban and the gestapo-like tactics of ICE and border agents in separating families, arresting law-abiding immigrants and refugees at courthouses, schools and places of work and detaining asylum seekers and refugees for as long as they want.

For most people, whether discrimination is good or bad is a cut and dry response.

Apparently not for everyone.

Additional reporting by Views From the Edge.

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TGIF FEATURE: Remembering the Chinese Exclusion Act is more important today than ever

Rally for Inclusion planned in San Francisco's Chinatown

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

135 years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a rally will be held this Saturday in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown to say no more exclusion.

A coalition of community groups and activists has organized a Rally for Inclusion fearing what happened 135 years ago is being repeated against Muslims and immigrants today.

“On the 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, those of us who know too well the tragic consequences of Exclusion must stand in defense and solidarity with Muslims, immigrants, and refugees who are being targeted today,” said author and historian Judy Yung to AsAmNews. “Excluding immigrants on the basis of race, national origin, or religion was wrong then and it’s wrong now.”

The Exclusion Act was the first law in the country to ban immigration on the basis of race. It was extended numerous times and not officially rescinded until 1943, 61 years after it was first passed. By then, the country’s xenophobia had switched from the Chinese to the Japanese.

Some 45 diverse groups are sponsoring the event ranging from the Chinatown YMCA and Wu Yee Children’s Services to Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Organization of Chinese Americans. More than a dozen individual activists, religious leaders and educators are also listed as sponsors.

The executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center and Parish Associate for the Presbyterian Church explained. “Learning about the Chinese Exclusion Act has helped me to better understand what my parents went through in their lives. I often wondered why my father hardly ever talked about Angel Island (that he had to go through)and the discrimination he face during the time of the Exclusion Act. More importantly, it should remind us to stand up and speak out when other immigrant communities begin to face what we have faced.”

The group is sponsoring a resolution calling on the city of San Francisco and other cities throughout the country to join them in marking the passage of the anniversary and drawing parallels between what happened in 1882 and what is happening today.

“(President) Trump has used false assumptions and public prejudices to pander to his support base and to justify his anti-immigration policies,” said Yung. “Chinese laborers were stereotyped as coolies, heathens, criminals, and unassimilable aliens. Trump claims that all Muslims are potential terrorists and all undocumented immigrants are “bad hombres” and criminals—justifying his call for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country and increased border enforcement to stop, detain, and deport all unauthorized immigrants.”

Resist Exclusion! was produced to help publicize the May 6, 2017 Rally for Inclusion to be held in Portsmouth Square, San Francisco Chinatown from 12 pm to 1:30 pm. Details about the rally and how to join our effort can be found at www.nomorexclusion.org.

Yung said that the President’s proposed ban on refugees from entering the country based on security concerns is unnecessary because extreme vetting already occurs.

Syrian refugees, according to USA Today, wait an average of 18 to 24 months before being approved for entry. They are screened by the FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Further background checks are conducted before they can be granted a green card and later become naturalized U.S. citizens.

“My home church, where I serve as a Parish Associate, our church opened up the first medical clinic because the Chinese were excluded from entering hospitals, schools, jobs… Without remembering, we will forget about our core values of human compassion and social justice. So speak out everyone,” urged Fong.

“As a people who know too well the tragic consequences of Exclusion, Chinese Americans must stick their necks out on behalf of Muslims, immigrants, and refugees who are being targeted today,” added Yung. “As a country that has benefitted greatly from the contributions of immigrants, it is the responsibility of all Americans to help fulfill the promise of our Constitution for a more perfect union.”

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