FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 8, 2016

Contact: Mary Tablante, (202) 706-6768, [email protected]

National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and Members File Amicus Briefs for Immigrant Rights

The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and its members continue to support the President’s executive actions on immigration, which would expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and establish a Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program. These programs could benefit five million undocumented immigrants, including 400,000 Asian Americans, but have been challenged in the case U.S. v. Texas. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on April 18.

NCAPA and ten of its members joined an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief led by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and were among the 326 civil rights and immigration groups urging the Supreme Court to allow the programs to move forward. The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), another NCAPA member, also led an amicus brief to inform the Supreme Court about the special concerns facing LGBT Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). An estimated 267,000 undocumented immigrants are LGBT, and a disproportionate share are AAPI. NQAPIA’s brief was joined by 20 national and local LGBT organizations from various regions of the country, various ethnicities, allies, youth, and transgender groups.

“The Supreme Court is extremely supportive of LGBT people, and we aim to show how immigration laws and policies have a direct impact on the lives of LGBT people,” said NQAPIA Executive Director Glenn D. Magpantay. “We also lift up the voices of Asian Pacific Islanders to demonstrate the ethnic diversity of undocumented immigrants.”

“AAPI families and communities across the nation would benefit from the President’s immigration executive actions, which are clearly constitutional. NCAPA has long advocated for these programs to move forward, but more importantly, we need comprehensive immigration reform,” said NCAPA National Director Christopher Kang. “Millions of immigrants live in fear of deportation and being taken away from their families. We urge the Supreme Court to promote human dignity and uphold these constitutional actions.”

To learn about those who would be impacted by this Supreme Court case, please read NQAPIA’s stories of LGBT AAPIs and many more stories at FightforFamilies.org.

The ten NCAPA organizations who joined the NILC brief were: Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABA-North America) and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC).

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Based in Washington, D.C., the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans is a coalition of 35 national Asian Pacific American organizations that serves to represent the interests of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities and to provide a national voice for our communities’ concerns. Our communities are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, currently making up approximately six percent of the population.