OCA – Orange County Chapter

Why is it important for Asian Americans to participate?

Completing the census forms will help your neighborhood receive benefits, funding and services and will help empower the community to ensure that your needs are being met. Additionally, census data provides the Asian American community with the only means by which to get quality detailed data, disaggregated for different ethnicities, which is key to our ability to address our communities’ needs.

Source: API Count 2010 Census Network

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22 March 2010

CONTACT

Lan Nguyen | Program Associate

202 223 5500 | lnguyen@ocanational.org

Washington, DC – OCA, a national Asian Pacific American (APA) social justice organization with over 80 chapters and affiliates, joined tens of thousands of Americans in support of comprehensive immigration reform in the nation’s capital yesterday to remind President Obama and Congress of the need to fix America ’s broken immigration system.

“As an organization of Americans with a strong connection to this nation’s immigration system, OCA urges President Obama and our Congressional leaders to never forget the families torn apart from visa backlogs and unjust immigration policies,” said Ken Lee, OCA National President, whose father was detained at Angel Island, California, prior to entering the United States in 1927.

OCA members and partners from Illinois , New York, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia traveled to Washington , DC to continue OCA’s multi-decade campaign to improve the U.S. immigration system and ensure that the benefits of family-based immigration continue for all Americans. Some OCA members endured 14-hour bus rides to march with the estimated 200,000 people on the National Mall in support of immigration reform.

“Yesterday, we stood in solidarity with Americans of all immigration and ethnic backgrounds to ensure this nation of immigrants takes the necessary steps to provide a fair and just system for families to be united, communities to grow, and businesses to prosper,” said OCA Executive Director George Wu, who immigrated as a child to the United States under the family-based system in the 1980’s.
In attendance at the rally were Qing Hong Wu and his fiancée, who recently worked with the OCA-New York Chapter to successfully prevent Wu’s deportation. Qing Wu is a Chinese American immigrant who was sentenced to a correctional facility in his youth for committing muggings. While serving his sentence, Qing Wu turned his life around by earning his GED and gaining early release for good behavior. He went on to become a respected community member and the vice president of internet technology at a national company, but when Qing Wu applied for naturalization to become a United States citizen, his file was flagged by immigration officials. Due to immigration law changes in 1996, Qing Wu’s childhood offenses made him deportable and he was abruptly detained.

Through massive collaborative efforts between OCA-New York Chapter and other committed community organizations that appealed for his release, Wu was pardoned by Governor Paterson for his offenses as a minor, which cleared him of any grounds for deportation. Wu’s success story is one of the few victories among many tragic stories of unjust deportations that will continue without comprehensive immigration reform.

Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Washington, DC, OCA’s mission is to advance the social, political and economic well-being of APAs. OCA is a part of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans’ immigration committee, which works closely with the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign. OCA encourages its chapters to endorse the national campaign to strengthen the APA voice in the comprehensive immigration reform movement.

22 March 2010

CONTACT

Lan Nguyen | Program Associate

202 223 5500 | lnguyen@ocanational.org

Washington, DC — OCA, a national Asian Pacific American (APA) social justice organization with over 80 chapters and affiliates, is pleased with last night’s passage of health care reform legislation by the United States House of Representatives. Over 30 million Americans, including many APAs, will have for access to affordable health care for the first time and all Americans will benefit from changes to the health care system.

“OCA applauds Congress for taking this historic leap toward providing quality and affordable health care to all Americans,” said Ken Lee, OCA National President. “This is wonderful for the Asian Pacific American community, which includes a high percentage of families, individuals and entrepreneurs who currently have no meaningful access to health insurance.”

Once signed into law, the bill will extend health insurance coverage to as many as 32 million currently uninsured Americans. The legislation includes expanded support for community health centers, which is crucial for preventive and low-cost care. With disproportionately high rates of Hepatitis B and liver cancer in the APA community, these vital changes are a step towards closing the gap in health disparities for minority populations.

“OCA looks forward to the signing of the Health Care bill by President Barack Obama tomorrow and the continued national conversation on how to build healthy communities,” said OCA Executive Director George Wu. “OCA strongly believes additional improvements to the American health care system will be needed, especially lifting the five-year bar on access to Medicaid for legal permanent residents.”

Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Washington, DC, OCA’s mission is to advance the social, political and economic well-being of APAs. In addition to engaging local communities on health care reform, OCA has worked closely with the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, the National Coalition on Health Care, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Through support from the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, OCA chapters led dialogues around the country on health access and disparities with community members and congressional leaders.

Washington, D.C.-The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and OCA National (OCA), the largest and second largest Asian American civil and human rights organizations in the nation, held their annual joint Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. this week. Participants were JACL and OCA leaders from across the United States who met to learn about leadership skills and the legislative process in the nation’s capital. The conference is sponsored by State Farm. Leslie Moe-Kaiser and Art Ruiz of State Farm were in attendance and made presentations.

Kicking off the conference was a Friday night reception at which the participants could meet and become acquainted with each other as well as with JACL and OCA staff members. The first session on Saturday morning was presented by Dr. Phil Nash, who teaches Asian American history at the University of Maryland. He encouraged a lot of interaction as everyone had the opportunity to tell personal family stories while learning about the history of Asian Americans. At a later session, Bruce Yamashita shared his story of discrimination in the Marine Corps. J.D. Hokoyama presented a Leadership Training Session. Leaders within the Asian American and civil rights community in Washington, D.C. presented various workshops and discussions throughout the conference. Participants also enjoyed a White House briefing.

Always a highlight of the conference is the participation of former Secretary of Transportation, Norman Y. Mineta, who was a dinner speaker and who has spoken at the conference for most of its 27 years of existence. After being the Mayor of San Jose, California, Secretary Mineta was elected to the United States House of Representatives where he served for many years. He was Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton and Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush. Secretary Mineta was accompanied at the dinner by his wife, Deni. He spoke proudly of his son, David Mineta, who has been selected as a candidate for a Deputy Secretary position in the Obama Administration.

Congressman Mike Honda of San Jose also spoke at a dinner. He joined the group for their Hill Visits at which time they also met Senator Daniel Inouye, Congresswomen Mazie Hirono, Madeleine Bordallo, and Judy Chu, and Congressmen Eni Faleomavaega and David Wu.

Participants are always touched by the visit to the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism where the Japanese American experience of World War II is depicted and remembered. The names of the ten concentration camps in which Japanese Americans were incarcerated are prominently displayed as well as the names of all Japanese American members of the United States Armed Forces who lost their lives in World War II. Warren Minami did an excellent job telling the story and explaining the Memorial.

National Executive Director of the JACL, Floyd Mori, and George Wu, Executive Director of OCA, took key roles in the conference. Pei Un Yee of OCA along with Jean Shiraki and Phillip Ozaki, JACL Fellows, ably planned and handled the operations of the conference.