At the beginning of the summer, President Obama championed a national service initiative, “United We Serve.” Designed to highlight and celebrate the service volunteers provide, Obama challenged the nation to join in a summer of service with the belief that everyone is capable of volunteering time and energy to help and service the community.

To follow Obama’s example, California non-profits have designated today, August 20, 2009, as the Immigrant Day of Service to highlight the contributions of immigrants for our communities. While the right-wing media often depict immigrants as stealing American jobs, services, and amenities, we know that this image is false and in fact immigrants do give back. Therefore, today we honor and celebrate the service of immigrants in helping to make our communities a better and brighter place.

Immigration is often painted as a Latino/a issue in the media, and oftentimes little recognition is given to other communities who suffer from the broken immigration system. However, the fact that nearly two-thirds of the API community is foreign-born makes immigration a pressing, while unrecognized, community issue.  To highlight the volunteerism of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) immigrants to the community, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Japanese American Citizens League-Pacific Southwest District co-sponsored a food drive in Los Angeles. This event was joined by several other API organizations, such as the Little Tokyo Service Center, API Older Adults Taskforce, Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches, Visual Communications, Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, API-Equality – Los Angeles, Asian Pacific Community Fund, Asian Pacific Women’s Center, and the Gay and Straight Alliance Network – all of whom helped donate food to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. 

APIs are an integral part of American society – we are neighbors, we are small business owners, and today we are volunteers who revitalize communities and contribute to the economy.  Events like these, while seemingly small, carry a deeply significant message in the national debate on immigration reform. The Immigrant Day of Service is a reminder of how central immigration has always been for the U.S. We need to uplift API voices because immigration has and continues to be an urgent issue for all of us.

Kristin Fukushima is the Policy Coordinator at the Japanese American Citizens League-Pacific Southwest District.