The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) hosted its inaugural

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) hosted its inaugural conference, “Power in Numbers: Uniting the Asian Pacific American Community for Action,” on Thursday, Sept. 16, as a part of the organization’s Capacity Building Project. The confab highlighted the growing power and the continuing challenges of New York City’s Asian Pacific American community.”While we may be growing in numbers and power, we still have a long way to go. We as immigrants are being attacked on all fronts—health care, immigration, education, housing, social services. It is tough out there and it is tougher for us Asian Americans,” remarked Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of New York Immigration Coalition.

More than 200 decision-makers, funders, practitioners, organizers, advocates, researchers and journalists participated in the discussions meant to ensure that the needs of NYC’s APA community are recognized in public policy and funding and that services are culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Among the issues raised during the morning plenary was the issue of immigration, particularly immigration reform and the rising number of deportation.
“More than 400,000 undocumented immigrants are deported every year, that is about 11,000 a day. The government doesn’t seem to care about the consequence of deportation to families. We are urging President Obama to stop these deportations,” Ms. Hong added.

Asking the President to stop deportations is a part of the multi-part action plan that pro-immigration activists hope to accomplish within the year. They are hoping that the DREAM Act will be approved next week and that a new comprehensive immigration bill will be introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) also next week.

The Dream Act aims to create a path to legal residency for youths who arrived in the United States before they turned 16, have lived here for five consecutive years, and are of good moral character, meaning that they have no criminal records. To qualify, the youths must graduate from high school or obtain a GED, complete two years in college or in the military, and be under 35 years old.

Ms. Hong suggested that organizations join a larger pan-immigrant community in order to make sure that the voice of the immigrant community gets louder. “We must turn our unity into action,” she added.