National News - JACL is kicking off its Scholarship Program for the 2011 academic year. Need not be Japanese American to apply and non-members are welcomed and encouraged to apply. At the national level, JACL offers over 30 awards, with an annual total of over $60,000 in scholarships.  

The JACL is accepting applications for its second annual JACL Collegiate Leadership Conference to be held on June 10-13, 2010 in Washington DC.  The program is limited to Asian American college students who are in their freshman, sophomore or junior year in school. 

I understand that there are many blog entries about the census already and I KNOW that many of you have heard the mantra, “10 Questions, 10 minutes!” many times.  However, I think it’s important to reiterate once again why participating and sending that blue census form is so important for the API community since the Census Day, April 1, is already right around the corner.

Examining the many variables that shape the debate over immigration reform leaves one to conclude that not only is comprehensive immigration reform the morally and ethically right thing to do, but it is also the economically right thing to do. The demand for low-wage undocumented workers as firms compete for cheap labor, and an increasingly costly enforcement-only immigration policy, combine to produce a perverse perpetuation of a deepening underground and dangerous movement of people across our borders.

In writing this blog post, I have to say that I have learned a tremendous amount about our current immigration system.  All we, as consumers of the mass media, get from our daily portions of television and smatterings of chatter from hallway conversation are a couple key words like: fences, illegal, fewer jobs, rising healthcare costs, etc.  However, we rarely have the opportunity to hear or see the plight of those individuals that are swept up into the immigration system and are never heard from again. 

When asked what I do as Policy Coordinator for the Pacific Southwest District of the Japanese American Citizens League, my answer of, “mostly immigration,” surprises folks. I can’t totally blame them, given that mainstream media seems to think the “immigration problem” is rooted squarely at our border down south.   

Whenever the word immigrant is mentioned during health care reform it stirs up heated emotions.  On the extremely conservative end, it immediately ignites a controversial topic that undocumented immigrants do not belong in this country and should be deported.  At the other end of the spectrum, liberals argue that immigrants are the backbone to our country and that their work ethic helps drive the U.S economy. 

NATIONAL AAPI TEXT-IN DAY

Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Location: Your cell phone!
To do: Text “AAPI” to 69866
Facebook Link: http://bit.ly/6hHH1X