If you think ICE is bad now, brace yourself, its going to get worse as standards are lowered

NBC

Asian Americans joined in demonstrations against ICE including these Sacramento protestors.

The fatal shootings in Minnesota, the unwarranted home invasions in Maine, the children detained without their parents, US citizens dragged from their cars and workplaces, the harassment and beatings of onlookers and ignorance of the Constitution and the feeling of impunity by federeal agents looks like something from a dystopian movie.

Except, its not a movie. It is the United States in 2026.

Already the largest law enforcement arm of the federal government, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wants to become even bigger. The agency's problem is hiring enough people to join what has essentially become Donald Trump's private army.

However, the shooting in Minneapolis Wednesday (Jan. 7) where an a Border Patrol  agent quickly fatally shot a mother of three, three times and the unwarranted shooting of an ICU nurse again raises the question about the adequacy of the training of federal agents.  

We already saw the fallout from this earlier this month with the tragic shootings of Renee Nicole Good  and Alex Pritti in Minneapolis. When you trade quality for speed, people get hurt. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is out there saying the training of her ICE troops is "streamlined," but the boots on the ground are telling a very different story.

 

Critics say the violent confrontations were inevitable as federal agents aggressively carry out the Trump regime's political strategy of stirring up Americans against the "others."

Congressional Democrats and immigrant rights groups have criticized ICE, arguing that agents have regularly violated migrants’ due process protections and characterizing recent raids as intimidation tactics.

Criticisms of ICE's relaxed age requirements center on concerns that lowered standards and insufficient training lead to the hiring of unqualified, immature, and potentially corrupt agents who may violate civil and constitutional rights; criticisms already leveled at current agents. 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem recently said on Fox News that there’s “no longer a cap on how old you can be” and that 18-year-olds could sign up.

Previously, an applicant had to be 21-years old or under 40 to get hired.
To sweeten the pot for potential recruits, the $29 billion courtesy of the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" allows the agency to offer a generous package of  incentives, including: 

A maximum $50,000 signing bonus

Student loan repayment and forgiveness options

25% Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) for HSI Special Agents

Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUI) for Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) Deportation Officers

Enhanced retirement benefits

In this time of high unemployment, those are attractive inducements. The US  unemployment rate was 4.4% in December 2025, marked by slow hiring and massive layoffs.

DHS reports that more than 80,000 individuals had applied to join ICE since the start of the campaign. The Trump regime reports that as of this month, ICE has surpassed its goal of 10,000 new immigration officers. Currently, ICE has more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel. 

The annual budget for ICE alone now exceeds the combined budgets of all other non-immigration federal law enforcement agencies. 

This isn't just a policy shift; it's a total overhaul of how federal law enforcement operates. We’re going to keep a close eye on the DHS Inspector General’s investigation into these new "accelerated" standards.

The "47-Day" fast track

Get this: DHS officially gutted training for ICE agents. We went from a five-month professional academy down to just eight weeks. That is 47 days of training, down from 5 months. And yeah, you guessed it—the duration was reportedly picked specifically to honor the 47th President. In comparison, police officers in California undergo six-months of formal training.

Earlier this month (January 2026), it was revealed that an artificial intelligence tool used for hiring mistakenly categorized thousands of applicants as "experienced law enforcement," allowing them to bypass full academy training and instead take a four-week online course. For the mathematically challenged, that's only 28 days!

Under the new shortened course, ICE trainers are basically churning thes rest of the recruits through a 24/7 meat grinder. We’re talking six-day work weeks just to cram everything in. But you can't compress five months of law, tactics, and ethics into 47 days without cutting corners.

Unfortunately, with the shorter training period, DHS had to cut out some training. For example: 

No More Spanish: They cut the entire five-week language program. New agents are literally being told to just "use a translation app" in the field. Imagine trying to navigate a high-tension raid with Google Translate.

Tactical Training Halved: Reports are surfacing that firearms and de-escalation training have been slashed in half just to get boots on the ground faster.

Hmong Americans and thousands of Minnesotans enddure freezing weather to protest ICE.

Vetting Failures: Because they’re trying to hire 12,000 new people in a single year, the background checks are failing. The "breakneck speed" of the current hiring blitz has reportedly allowed some recruits to reach training without complete fingerprinting, drug tests, or background checks. This may be the most dangerous aspect of ICE's reduced training.

And ... if you've been watching the videos -- from the slayings of Renee Good and Alex Pritti to the mistaken detention of Hmong elder ChongLy Thao --- taken by ordinary citizens of how ICE is abusing and ignoring the basic civil rights of people, including US citizens, it appears that the class on what's legal and what's not legal under the Constitution, needs to be extended and hammered into some of the yahoos abusing their authority instead of the cursing and name calling of the already dead victims.

Veteran law enforcement leaders, like Sheriff Kevin Joyce of Cumberland County, Maine, haven’t minced words, labeling recent operations as "bush-league policing." This sentiment stems from incidents where ICE agents have bypassed local coordination, in one case even detaining an authorized local corrections officer on a roadside. The consensus among old-school sheriffs is that while the mission is to remove serious criminals, the agency has "moved the goalposts" to prioritize optics over professional procedure.

One of the loudest complaints from local police is the lack of "professional courtesy" shown to fellow officers. In Brooklyn Park, local police reported ICE agents boxing in and holding off-duty officers of color at gunpoint. These veterans argue that such "reckless" behavior forces local cops to treat federal agents as a potential threat rather than partners.

This isn't just a policy shift; it's a total overhaul of how federal law enforcement operates. We’re going to keep a close eye on the DHS Inspector General’s investigation into these new "accelerated" standards.

ICE will take anybody

There is no evidence to suggest that the ICE screening process for white supremacists is effective; on the contrary, reports from civil rights organizations, media outlets and government sources indicate that extremism is an ongoing concern within law enforcement agencies, including ICE.

As a matter of fact, the ICE recruitment propaganda appears to be aimed at individuals who admire the racist teachings of Hitler.

Key findings and concerns:

Infiltration of Law Enforcement: The FBI has long acknowledged the threat of white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement agencies, a concern echoed by the Brennan Center for Justice and other watchdog groups. Reports have identified "active links" between domestic terrorism investigations and law enforcement officials.

Specific Incidents and Propaganda: Recent news articles from 2025 have highlighted instances of explicit white supremacist references in official ICE recruitment materials and social media posts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). An ICE prosecutor in Dallas was also found to be running a white supremacist account on social media.

Lack of Oversight: Critics, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, have raised alarms about the failure of ICE and DHS to adequately address and remove white supremacist content and extremism in their ranks.

Insufficient Screening: There are concerns that current hiring practices and background checks, particularly during periods of rapid expansion, have been inadequate, with one Government Accountability Office report identifying flaws in US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) processes.

Calls for Action: Lawmakers and civil rights organizations have urged the Department of Justice (DOJ), FBI, and DHS to improve screening processes for all candidates and current staff for promoting white supremacy and other forms of bias.

Overall, the available information suggests a significant problem with white supremacist ideology within ICE and related agencies, and a lack of effective screening measures to prevent the racists out of ICE and other law enforcement agencies.

The annual budget for ICE alone now exceeds the combined budgets of all other non-immigration federal law enforcement agencies. The total funding for immigration and border enforcement agencies (including ICE and CBP) in FY 2025 accounts for approximately two-thirds of all federal law enforcement spending.

$75 billion for ICE

The recent budget bill provided a total of $170.7 billion to be allocated to immigration enforcement over several years, with $75 billion directed specifically to ICE. And if that wasn't enough, the House passed and the Senate is considering an additional $10 billion to fund ICE the rest of this year.

And what do we get? Masked men and women who are reluctant to presesnt an ID and who might have gone to the local military surplus supply store to get camo garb with a bullet-proof vest imprinted with "ICE" or "Border Patrol." Sometimes, if they didn't have time to fully outfit themselves, the "so-called" agents are wearing blue jeans or khaki pants.

Some local law enforcement members have been heard describing their unidentified federal counterparts as "wannabe cops" with the ability to chase suspects, push, abuse them, and in some cases, employ torture; all in the name of Trump.

In the case of Minneapolis, local police are handicapped. With only 600 cops on the police force, already busy with local crime and traffic, they are no match for the 2,000 ro 3,000 federal agents who feel free to harass and detain anyone hampering their ability to go after anybody they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant.

The mayor and Minnesota Gov. Walz are urging local residents and local law enforcement to not resort to violence against ICE despite the rising anger against the agency. Violent confrontations could give the Trump regime to declare martial law under the Insurection Act and allow the regime to send in the military. But that han't prevented the Trump regime from  giving them sopoenas.

As Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC),Grace Meng, D-NY, has repeatedly demanded answers from DHS regarding the treatment of Asian immigrants and lawful permanent residents. Earlier this month she announced her opposition to funding bills that fail to hold ICE accountable for what she described as "trampling on" the rights of law-abiding immigrants.

Thousands of Minnesotans are tallying in support of immigrants.

The View from the Edge

In 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations will continue to have a profound impact on the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and other communities of color, characterized by a sharp rise in arrests, mental health crises, and economic disruption. 

Any lingering belief among AAPI voters that the Trump regime's immigration enforcement doesn't affect Asian Americans , even those with the proper documentation and are in the US legally, should have dissipated by now as federal agents have shown they have no knowledge of  or respect for the Constitution.

A recent poll by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago (AP-NORC) found that the economy is the top concern for Asian Americans. 

Asian communities in the US, particularly in the Twin Cities and California, are actively protesting increased ICE operations in 2026, which have tripled arrests of Asian immigrants

A coalition of Asian groups and vendors from Saint Paul spoke about the impact ICE operations are having on their communities.

"This is the most active and united I have ever seen in the Asian community in Saint Paul. Because we've seen our elders be terrorized, we have seen foot traffic decrease in our shops, and we have seen ICE agents lurk out of our stores and community spaces trying to target us," said Cam Yang who joined the Twin Cities' protests. 

In Minnesota, federal agents are reportedly "hunting" for Asians. Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul are afraid to leave their house or send their kids to school, the elderly won't go to their medical appointments.

The actions of the federal agents, ICE and the Border Patrol, suggests that the rule of law, the Constitution, our civil rights, are on the line.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

Slaying of Minneapolis mother prompts Asian Americans to join anti-ICE protests

NBC

Asian Americans in Sacramento, CA. joined anti-ICE protests last weekend.

In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old poet and legal observer Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026, Asian Americans in Minneapolis and beyond are rising up with a clear message: the Donald Trump's regime's "reign of terror" must end.

In Minneapolis, Southeast Asian refugee communities have responded to the January 7, 2026, shooting of Renee Nicole Good with profound grief and organized resistance, viewing the federal crackdown as a return to the trauma of the war-torn lands they fled.

Prominent Vietnamese American poet and activist Bao Phi, a refugee himself, has been a leading voice at rallies. He describes the current atmosphere as a "trauma response," stating, "You see the pattern of both injustice and... callousness that is an echo of things that have happened to many different communities, including ours before."

The City of Minneapolis, which is home to one of the largest Hmong American communities, released safety guidance and updates on the shooting in multiple languages, including Hmong, to ensure these communities are informed as they navigate the heavy federal presence.

Southeast Asian residents have joined tens of thousands of others in marches through south Minneapolis, calling for "ICE out now". Advocacy groups like OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates have explicitly condemned the shooting as "government-sanctioned murder" and likened federal tactics to the "Tiananmen Square Massacre."

Columnists and community members have highlighted the "human cost" of current enforcement, noting that hundreds of Southeast Asians were deported from Minnesota in the year prior, adding to the fear triggered by the shooting. They frame the defense of their neighbors as a moral necessity for a community built on migration.

From the streets of south Minneapolis to solidarity vigils in Los Angeles, Asian American activists are linking this tragedy to a long history of state violence and the specific trauma of refugee communities.

In Rochester, NY, members of the Bhutanese community joined local rallies to show solidarity with Minneapolis, highlighting how the fear of federal enforcement has resonated across the refugee diaspora.

Who was Renee Good?

Here is how the community is responding:

National organizations like Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and various Filipino American groups in Los Angeles have condemned the shooting as a "profound abuse of power". In a shared statement, community leaders declared, "No one should lose their life at the hands of a violent and dehumanizing system... We stand firmly against ICE and all forms of state violence."

“Any loss of life involving those entrusted to uphold the law is very troubling,” stated the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), the largest national affiliation of Filipino American institutions and umbrella organizations, said in a statement. “We believe that violence of this nature can affect any community and threatens the safety of us all.”

On social media, groups like Stop AAPI Hate have reminded followers that constitutional rights apply to everyone, regardless of status. They urged the community to "Report ICE sightings" and "Protect one another," framing the defense of immigrant neighbors as a moral necessity for a community built on migration.

Local residents have expressed visceral disgust at attempts by federal officials to label Good a "domestic terrorist". One Southeast Asian American resident in Minneapolis shared on social media that overhearing any dismissive talk regarding the victim felt "dehumanizing," especially given the recent escalation where federal agents reportedly used chemical weapons near local high schools.

The shooting has forged a unified front in Minneapolis, where tens of thousands have marched to demand that federal agents leave the city. As Bao Phi put it, the community is standing together across lines of race and faith to ensure Renee Good’s name becomes a catalyst for real change.

Speaking at a rally, Phi observed that "history has a way of repeating itself," noting that the same neighborhoods that once offered safety to refugees are now awash in fear because of the overwhelming federal presence.

“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop,” said State Attorney General Keith Ellison as he announced Monday the state's lawsuit against the Trump regime. “These poorly trained, aggressive and armed agents of the federal state have terrorised Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

ICE on a rampage, arresting, detaining, deporting Asian American veterans

'We expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of Asians arrested in the latter half of 2025'

SEARAC

Southeast Asian Americans protest deportations targeting their community.

Its crazy. US military veterans who fought for their country are not immune from the out-of-control agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement trying to meet a "quota" mandated by Donald Trump officials.

A recent report from UCLA Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Initiative. found that arrests of Asian immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more than tripled between 2024 and mid-2025. Enforcement actions have included workplace raids, such as one at a Hyundai plant in Georgia where over 300 Korean nationals were arrested.

Recent news from ICE raises concerns regarding non-citizen military veterans and Southeast Asian refugees who served with US forces during the Vietnam War, or as the Vietnamese government calls the "American War."

The situation is worse for some AAPI than others. Hmong and Laotian allies, who aided US forces during that conflict, have come under scrutiny. 

Reports indicate detentions for deportation, with 16 individuals arrested in Michigan in July and August 2025 based on older criminal records. Advocacy groups and state legislators have highlighted their service, but the federal government's focus on immigration enforcement, no matter how harsh, appears to continue.

State Representative Mai Xiong, Michigan's first Hmong American legislator, said in a Facebook video that many of the detainees had never been to Laos, having been born in refugee camps in other countries, or had been brought to the US as children.

        RELATED: 

• Hundreds of highly-skilled South Koreans arrested by ICE
• Man hangs himself while in ICE detention
• Immigration is the wedge; ending democracy is the goal

Xiong is the wife of Wa Kong Lor, one of the detained immigrants, read a statement during a press conference: "This appeared to be a targeted operation, an easy way for ICE officers to detain people without going to their homes."

"My husband, like many others that day, was taken without warning," she said.

This issue is not new. Earlier this year, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinded a policy that generally allowed pre-1995 immigrants to remain in the country, leading to a significant increase in deportations. The Trump administration previously increased deportations of Southeast Asian refugees, sometimes for offenses committed years prior.

With policies indicating military service does not automatically prevent deportation, ICE has continued to act on these cases. Many have lived with final removal orders for years, in uncertainty because their countries of origin initially did not accept them back. However, US pressure is reportedly leading these nations to change their policies, increasing vulnerability for these refugees.

Concerns also extend to non-citizen military veterans and their families, with increased detentions by ICE reported since 2025. Examples provided include:

• A veteran reportedly detained without a warrant during a raid.

• An Army veteran and U.S. citizen allegedly subjected to tear gas and pepper spray during a raid despite identifying himself.

• A disabled veteran with a green card reportedly detained during a routine citizenship interview.

The Department of Homeland Security highlighted an individual who falsely claimed US military service, which some view as an attempt to justify enforcement actions.

Advocates suggest that many veterans facing deportation are being targeted for long-past offenses, sometimes linked to untreated service-related trauma.

For now, groups like the Asian Law Caucus and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) are fighting on the front lines, and legislation like the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act (SEADRA) is in the works. It's a small spark of hope in an otherwise dark time. But it's not enough. We need to do more. And we need to hold our leaders accountable for this disgraceful treatment of those who once served this nation.

And it appears that the situation will get worse  for AAPI communities as the Trump administration feels emboldened on the issue. In the first half of 2025, nationals from China, India, Vietnam, Laos, and Nepal accounted for 80% of Asian arrests.

"We expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of Asians arrested in the latter half of 2025. This will be driven by the Trump administration’s e�fort to ramp up the number of ICE arrests exponentially to reach its target of one million deportations per year," concludes the UCLA study.

"So far, ICE arrests have disproportionately impacted and harmed Latino communities, who have been subjected to extensive racial profiling. This will likely change because Asians are 16% of the estimated number of undocumented immigrants and 25% of the non-citizen immigrants, but they made up less than 3% of those arrested during the first few months of the Trump Administration," the UCLA analysis concludes. "The predicted increase may very well be accompanied by a resurgence in anti-Asian xenophobia."

News reports say the Trump administration has set a quota system for ICE detentions and deportations. Initially Trump explained that his administration would target violent criminals for deportation but as in order to meet the reported quota, federal agents have been arresting legal residents as they report to immigration courts, rounding up suspects in church, schools and at their jobs. 

The recent Supreme Court ruling allowing racial profiling so that federal agents to arrest anyone that looks like, sounds like or suspected of being an illegal immigrant broadens ICE powers will broaden the pool of people that can be arrested.

Any belief by conservative Asians and Asian Americans who voted for Trump that they are immune to his administration's racist immigration policies is a fantasy and should be put to rest.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

California county rescinds ordinance limiting water for Asian American landowners

INSTAGRAM

 Asian Americans celebrated after Siskiyou County rescinded its water ordinances.

A rural northern California county has repealed two ordinances that restricted water use and delivery near predominantly Hmong communities, ostensibly to crack down on illegal marijuana farming. 

Two years after Siskiyou County enacted a series of targeted ordinances that deprived thousands of Hmong American, Chinese American, and other Asian American residents of basic water for survival, hygiene, and wildfire defense, community members secured an important milestone this week in their fight to build a home, live safely, and raise their families without fear of bigotry and racist persecution by local officials.

As of August 1, 2023, Siskiyou County has repealed two of its water ordinances that created a humanitarian crisis for Asian American residents, degraded their health, resulted in the loss of livestock and gardens, left people unable to fend off wildfires, and forced many to leave their homes.

The county also amended a third water ordinance to establish due process protections and limit violation fines that discouraged people from providing water.

All Siskiyou County residents, including those in Shasta Vista, Dorris, and Macdoel, can now lawfully bring water to their homes via trucks and purchase water for basic needs from neighboring large well owners.

“Today, we celebrate an important victory affirming our human right to water and our rights to live without oppressive fear and trauma, simply because of where we were born or what we look like.” said ”Siskiyou County resident Russell Mathis.

Lawsuits vs. SIskiyou

These measures came after a settlement in Lo v. Siskiyou County, led by 11 Siskiyou County residents who were denied basic water needs as part of the county’s well-documented campaign of harassment, discrimination, and racial profiling against Asian American community members.

A federal court ordered the county to stop enforcement of two water ordinances to prevent the “dehydration and de facto expulsion of a disfavored minority” in 2021. In 2022, the federal judge ruled against the county’s attempts to end this preliminary injunction, noting “the passage of time has erased neither the concerning language County officials used to describe their purposes nor the racial animosity Hmong people in Shasta Vista have faced.”

The Lo plaintiffs were represented by the law offices of Allison B. Margolin, PLC and Frank S. Moore, APC. The Asian Law Caucus and the ACLU of Northern California filed briefs in support of the Lo plaintiffs’ lawsuit, showing that Siskiyou County’s discriminatory practices extended beyond water, including racial profiling in traffic stops and the use of punitive liens.

In August 2022, Asian American community members filed a major class action lawsuit against Siskiyou County officials and the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Department for their sweeping racial persecution campaign. In this case, Chang v. Siskiyou County, community members and their attorneys at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Asian Law Caucus, and Covington & Burling LLP detailed how county officials restrict people’s right to water and execute unlawful traffic stops, search and seizure practices, and property liens in a blatant effort to isolate residents of Asian descent and drive them out of the region.

Just as community members led a settlement in Lo v. Siskiyou County to restore their right to water, community members leading the Chang v. Siskiyou County class action lawsuit are currently in settlement negotiations to resolve claims of racial discrimination.

“As the Asian American community in Siskiyou has grown, including more parents enrolling their kids in school, grandparents retiring to more rural areas that remind them of Laos, and families trying to be closer together, Siskiyou County and the Sheriff’s Department have gone to troubling lengths to push out the Asian American community, and community members are taking action to create a safe, inclusive place to live,” said John Do, senior staff attorney for the Racial & Economic Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California.

The discriminatory practices came through acts of intimidation including unlawful traffic stops and illegal search and seizure practices.

In a county where US Census figures showed that Asian and Pacific Islanders adults made up only about 2.4% of the adult population, more than 28% of traffic stops conducted by sheriff’s deputies last year involved Asian American drivers, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said their investigation found that sheriff’s deputies stopped drivers of Asian descent at a rate of roughly 12 times greater than their proportion of the driving-age population, with Asian American drivers about 17 times more likely to be pulled over than a white individual.

The northern California county in the shadow of Mt. Shasta is home to fewer than 45,000 people, of whom 85% are white and 1.6% are Asian American, according to the 2020 Census. Many Asian American residents in Siskiyou County are Hmong and came to the US as refugees after fighting alongside the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. 

Marijuana growing

The county claimed the ordinances were necessary and primarily aimed at illegal marijuana agriculture. Growing cannabis has been legal in California since 2018, but Siskiyou’s regulations have made it nearly impossible to grow legally, according to Prism. The county does not classify marijuana-growing as an agricultural therefore criminalizing growing the plant.

However, many Hmong and Chinese community members, who are part of the county’s farming population, said the measures were largely enforced in Asian American areas, the lawsuits allege. 

“If the sheriff was really concerned about cannabis, there would be all kinds of enforcement going on throughout the county, and there’s very little in the non-Hmong areas,” said Glenn Katon, an attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus in an interview with Prism.

White people have grown cannabis in Siskiyou since at least the late ‘60s without much incident, according to Margiana Petersen-Rockney, who co-published ethnographic research on cannabis farmers in the county.

In the mid-2010s, Hmong Americans started to arrive. The cheap parcels of land and mountainous landscape drew many Hmong elders from the Hmong communities in Minnesota and Fresno, Calif. The mountains and rural setting reminded them of Laos and their agricultural roots.

The tension grew between the county and its newest residents when four officers from different agencies, including the sheriff's department, fired 60 shots and killed Soobleej Kaub Hawj, a local farmer, who was attempting to bring water to the area. Authorities say he brandished a gun.

“The county kept insisting the case was about cannabis,” the ACLU's Do told Prism. “(The county’s officials) spoke as if everyone was part of a violent drug cartel essentially, and I think that language is indicative of how they’ve been treated.”

Siskiyou County’s water ordinances is the latest example of a long history of racist water policies used to target Black, Latino, and other communities of color and uphold segregation in California, particularly in unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley, and in other states across the country.

“Siskiyou County’s bigoted practices draw from a long history of US policies treating people of Asian descent as less than full Americans who ‘don’t belong’ in our country, picking and choosing who has the freedom to build better lives and live safely,” said Glenn Katon, litigation director for the Asian Law Caucus. 

After the ordinances were repealed last week, Siskiyou resident Matis said: “My neighbors and I have been forced to make impossible choices between bathing every week and providing water to our pets, livestock, and gardens. County officials said they wanted to ‘choke’ us out, and these water ordinances were one tool in a shameful playbook to push so many of us out of the neighborhoods we call home.” 

EDITOR'S NOTE: 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.

Hmong Americans’ lawsuit alleges racist treatment by California sheriff

KRCR PHOTO

Hmong Americans protest attempt to restrict water deliveries to their properties in California.

Hmong residents of Siskiyou County in California filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday against the County Sheriff alleging "a sweeping campaign to harass and intimidate Hmong and other Asian Americans."

"In 2022, as more and more people are reckoning with systemic racism in our country, Siskiyou County officials are choosing to create a humanitarian crisis, persecute Hmong Americans and Asian Americans, and create divisions among neighbors,” said Emi Young, staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Siskiyou County and its sheriff on behalf of members of the Hmong community. The complaint seeks to hold Siskiyou officials accountable for their alleged systematic racial targeting and for the violation of Asian Americans’ US and California constitutional rights, including an order prohibiting Siskiyou County and Sheriff LaRue from engaging in race, color, and ethnicity-based discrimination with safeguards to ensure that such discrimination does not continue in the future. 

The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, and Covington & Burling LLP.

Siskiyou County is far from
California's urban centers.

The county has struggled for years to rein in an explosion of cannabis grows in areas like Mount Shasta Vista, many of which are owned by the Hmong. Although growing is permitted for personal use, commercial cultivation is banned in Siskiyou.

The complaint alleges that county officials “view Asian Americans as a monolithic group of which every single person is part of a violent drug cartel and blame the County’s widespread cannabis cultivation on Asian Americans in explicitly racialized terms, notwithstanding that cannabis has been grown in the County for decades,” according to the complaint.

The complaint cites former Sheriff Jon Lopey comparing the fight against illegal cannabis to war in a foreign country. The complaint also cites remarks made by Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt in a July 2020 email to a colleague in which he compared the situation to Sharia Law, referring to Islamic law based on the writings of the Quran, Islam's holy book. The majority of Hmong are not Muslims.

The situation involving Hmong farms has devolved into “complete lawlessness,” Haupt wrote. “I am fearful that we are losing a portion of our county and being turned into a no go zone, similar to what we see in foreign countries like Europe where Sharia Law has replaced local governance.”

As the complaint details, Siskiyou County officials and Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue have made their intentions explicit in public meetings and documents, characterizing Asian Americans as people “who thumb their nose at our society, at our way of life” and singling out “the Hmong residents” at a Board of Supervisors meeting before asking for a vote of “those County residents present.” 

The Sheriff’s Department targets Asian American drivers at a rate 12 times greater than the Asian American driving-age population. 

At the same time, as the region faces hotter temperatures and more extreme wildfires, Siskiyou County officials have created a humanitarian crisis that disproportionately deprives Asian American residents of water needed for health and hygiene and to protect themselves and their homes from wildfires.

“Like many of our neighbors, my husband, my son, and I love the beauty of Siskiyou County and want to enjoy a safe, healthy life with our friends and family,” said Mai Nou Vang, one of the Hmong American plaintiffs in the case who owns property in the area. 

“Last year, my family and I were driving outside of Shasta Vista and were stopped by two sheriff’s deputies," said Vang. "For a half hour, we were questioned about what we were doing and where we had come from. They searched our car without a warrant, and then finally let us go with a ticket to fix a light cover. My story isn’t unique. So many of my Asian neighbors have been stopped like this by the police while we try to go about our days, run errands, and visit loved ones.”

Rural Siskiyou County, located along California's border with Oregon, is home to fewer than 45,000 people, of whom 85% are white and 1.6% are Asian American, according to the latest US Census. Residents, most of whom are registered Republican, have attempted unsuccessfully to secede from the state to form a new state to be called Jefferson.

Many Asian American residents in Siskiyou County are Hmong and came to the US. as refugees after fighting alongside the US government in the Vietnam War. The Hmong, most of whom were farmers in their homeland, have bought land, which is relatively inexpensive in the rocky and mountainous county. 

The lawsuit filed with the Eastern District Court of California details the findings of a year-long investigation into the county’s disturbing treatment of Asian American residents, including interviews with community members, public records requests, and review of thousands of Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Department documents.

• Over 28% of traffic stops conducted by the Sheriff’s Department in 2021 were of Asian American drivers. The department stops drivers of Asian descent at a rate nearly 12 times greater than their proportion of the driving-age population.

• An Asian American in Siskiyou County is about 17 times more likely to be pulled over by the Sheriff’s Department than a white individual, and the median stop length for Asian American drivers was 56% longer than for other drivers.

• The Sheriff’s Department stops Asian Americans during the day, when a driver’s race is more readily visible, at a nearly 60% higher rate than at night.

• Several water ordinances have created a humanitarian crisis that severely impacts Asian American residents, particularly in Shasta Vista, Dorris, and Macdoel. While a judge recently issued a preliminary injunction against two of the ordinances, the county’s measures have collectively degraded community members’ health, resulted in the loss of livestock and gardens, left people unable to fend off wildfires, and forced many to leave their homes in the past year.

• Over 80% of property liens issued by the county have been issued against Asian American residents, many of which are more than double the assessed property value.

Siskiyou County dominated by forests and mountains.

“Since more Hmong residents began moving to Siskiyou County in 2015, county officials and Sheriff LaRue have orchestrated a sweeping campaign to push out the Asian American community,” said the ACLU's Young.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Sacramento affirmed that the preliminary injunction for two of the discriminatory water ordinances must stay in place after the county attempted to end the injunction. In her ruling, the judge wrote that “the passage of time has erased neither the concerning language County officials used to describe their purposes nor the racial animosity Hmong people in Shasta Vista have faced.”

“We are a group of people who came to the United States in the late 70s as refugees because of our involvement in helping the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Many of us have since moved to Siskiyou County because we love the landscape and rural nature of the region,” said Peter Thao, Hmong community member in Siskiyou County. 

“We want to build a good rapport with the community here and the local government," Thao continued. "Hmong people are very family oriented. We are not here to cause hardship or burden to this community. I would like to see our communities understand each other better. If the local government would give us a seat at the table, we could work together to build a better relationship between our communities.”

Members of the ACLU cite that “Sharia Law” comment as further evidence of county officials’ racial animus and motivations.

The ACLU says county logs demonstrate “widespread racial profiling in traffic stops,” in the county, as well as concerted effort “to dispossess Asian Americans of their land.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Mother kills self and her 3 children after father commits suicide

LEE FAMILY

Molly Cheng, Lee Yee and their children.

Minnesota authorities are calling the deaths of a Hmong American family a triple homicide and a double suicide.

Molly Cheng, 23, drowned her three young children and herself July 1 after she called police earlier that day to report that her husband, Yee Lee, 27, had shot himself, authorities said.

After Molly Cheng's call Maplewood police, a relative called 911 to report that Molly Cheng intended to kill herself and her three children. Authoritieis, who were sending a social worker to the Cheng family after Yee Lee's suicide, put out a statewide alert and began a frantic search for the family. It wasn't until Tuesday, July 5, that the bodies of the mother and her children were pulled from Vadnais Lake.

The Ramsey County medical examiner reported that Quadrillion T. Lee, 4; Phoenix Lee, 5; and Estella Zoo Siab Lee, 3, all drowned. The youngest two had also been smothered, the medical examiner ruled.

Their mother, Molly Cheng, 23, drowned, and Yee Lee, believed to be the children's father, died of a gunshot wound.

Family spokesman Chong Lue Lee, father of Yee Lee, said he wasn’t aware whether either his son or Cheng struggled with mental health issues. He described his son and Cheng as nice, kind people. the couple were both born in Thailand and grew up in the Thai refugee camp, Wat Tham Krabok.

“They are the last wave of Hmong refugees from Wat Tham Krabok,” Lee said of a group of Hmong refugees who left the camp in the early 2000s.

Both met in the Twin Cities and had been together for seven years. The couple operated a nail and hair salon in Brooklyn Park, Lee said. 

When police arrived after Molly Cheng called about Yee Lee's suicide, family members began gathering. Police tape prevented them from entering the house but they began making plans for the children. Molly Cheng rejected the offer to have the children spend the night at Chong Lue Lee's home. She did not want to be separated from her children.

The extended family left Molly Cheng and her children at the house believing the police would remain but the police soon left leaving the family alone.

At that point, Molly Chen left with her children. She called a friend to say what her intentions were. The friend called family and the relatives alerted police.

Authorities found the children's shoes near the lake and began dragging the lake. The first body was found Sunday, JJuly 5. By Monday, all the bodies had been recovered.

“We greatly appreciate that the police were present at the scene when my son passed away,” Chong Lue Lee said. “But we wished they could do more to prevent the loss of the other four lives.”

“We wish there would be 24-hour supervision for the mother and the children because of the father, because of what happened to him,” the elder Lee told a local TV station. “In a short time, less than three hours, the police release the mother and kids, and then in that three hours, a thing happened to those children. So wouldn’t it be better for there to be 24-hour supervision after such [a] tragedy happened to their loved one?”

Leaders in the close-knit Hmong community spoke with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Monday, explaining they are counseling not only the victims’ families but also Hmong families throughout the Twin Cities.

“Right now, the community is still in shock mode,” said Paul Xiong with the Hmong 18 Council of Minnesota. “This would be the second time this happened in the community.”

The Hmong 18 Council was formed more than 20 years ago when a Hmong mother killed her children.

The Hmong 18 Council of Minnesota along with family and community members will hold a candlelight vigil at Vadnais Lake Saturday, July 9 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Family members of Lee and Cheng have set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help defray funeral expenses.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Wisconsin bill would require that AAPI history be taught in public schools

Wisconsin Representative Francesca Hong

Wisconsin may be the third state to mandate the teaching of Asian American history, culture and contributions to United States.

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced legislation to update the state’s statutory educational goals to require “at all grade levels, an understanding of human relations, particularly with regard to…Hmong Americans and American Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDA),” according to a press release from the office of State Rep. Francesca Hong, one of the bipartisan group of lawmakers who introduced Assembly Bill 381 last summer

“The stories and experiences of these vast and diverse demographics are intrinsically linked with the story of Wisconsin, and this bill will help us ensure that is reflected in our classrooms. Hmong American and APIDA lives, cultures, and contributions to our state, nation, and local communities deserve this attention, commemoration, and respect,” Hong said in a statement.

If approved, Wisconsin would join Illinois and New Jersey in requiring the inclusion of Asian American history in its public schools. Other states considering adding curriculum to include Asian American and Pacific Islander topics include Ohio, New York, Florida and Connecticut.

Wisconsin is home to one of the largest Hmong American communities, refugees fleeing Vietnam and Laos when the the U.S. military left Vietnam.

“Our Hmong American and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American neighbors enrich our state with their presence and culture,” added Sen. Eric Wimberger. “Their stories are uniquely American, but often unheard, and our students will certainly benefit from learning about their experiences.”

Hmong American farmers claim firefighters let their marijuana farms burn

SCREEN CAPTURE / SACRAMENTO BEE

Volunteer Hmong Americans fight wildfires in northern California.

Hmong American farmers who have set up hundreds of greenhouses near the Northern California town of Weed to grow marijuana say local authorities and fire agencies allowed the Lava Fire burn through their properties destroying their crops.

Cannibis growers in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision of Weed say that authorities didn't fight wildfires raging through their properties Monday and blocked them from bringing their own water trucks so they could fight the fire themselves.

Local authorities disputed those charges and said the marijuana farmers blocked roads, threw rocks and forced Cal Fire crews to retreat from the scene, according to the Sacramento Bee. 

The tensions between the farmers, who are mostly of Hmong and Chinese descent, was the latest flare-up between law enforcement and growers in the remote area that reached a deadly point this week when police officers shot and killed a Hmong man who they say tried to drive through a blocked checkpoint waving a gun.

Only when the flames had swept through their neighborhood were the Hmong American farmers allowed to bring in their own watertrucks to wet down any smoldering embers.

Authorities claim there are 5,000 to 6,000 illegal pot growing sites in the Big Springs area in rural Siskiyou County located in the far north of California. California allows marijuana farms if local authorities approve them. Siskiyou bans the pot farms.

The lack of firefighting response is the latest act against the illegal farms. “The fireman just work today only. They don’t do nothing yesterday,” Michael Thao told the Sacramento Bee. "They're trying to get us out."

Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue denied those claims Wednesday, saying in an interview with The Bee that firefighters stayed out of Shasta Vista on Monday because the growers themselves were hostile to first responders. “Rocks were being thrown at fire personnel." he told the Bee. Firefighters pulled out of the area because they felt unsafe.

Monday night, a man identified as a Hmong American was stopped by police from entering a fire zone. As he tried to drive around a road block, police say he brandished a weapon. Police responded with gunfire killing the unidentified driver.

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

CalFire firefighters battle wildfire blaze. Evacuation orders are still in effect for the Lava Fire.

The Lava Fire, which began from a lightning strike on June 25, has burned 19,680 acres as of midday Thursday. The fire is burning 3.5 miles northeast of Weed and 4.5 miles southeast of Lake Shastina. The burn area spans over 30 square miles, according to the U.S. Forest Service. 

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for much of the region, affecting thousands of residents in the Weed and Lake Shastina areas. Road closures are also in place along Highway 97 and Everitt Memorial Highway. Containment increased from 19% to 25% Thursday morning.

The Lava Fire is one of three wildfires in the area with thousands of firefighters battling the blazes.