By: Mahima Mahadevan
Public Policy Chair, APIAVote-MI

Partisan politics, corporate interests, jargony language, boys’ club mentality – these are some reasons why I’ve kept a distance with the people that get elected to Lansing and the legislation that comes out of Lansing.  To be quite honest, I was satisfied with thinking of our state government as a black box.  By doing this, I gave myself permission to stay out of Lansing and hurl complaints and criticisms from afar knowing that I couldn’t (but in my reality, wouldn’t) do anything about it. 

So what changed?  The initial shift happened when I attended APIAVote-MI’s Legislative Day on February 28th.  It was my first time being inside legislators’ offices, meeting their staff and at times the legislators themselves, and having conversations with them guided by my interests.  Before that day, I had not known that legislators had an open door policy that often resulted in a high level staff member taking a few minutes to talk to people like us that walked in unannounced.  The second shift happened when I realized how important it was for our representatives to make direct contact with us and vice versa.  As is natural to all of us, we are more likely to consider a viewpoint or an issue when we connect a name with a face.  Now, when legislators see the name APIAVote-MI, hopefully they are more likely to pause and consider what we’re asking of them since they have met us.  In a similar manner, when I see the name of a legislator, I feel more empowered and willing to do something since I feel I actually know this person, even if from a brief encounter.   It will still take time for me to be more actively engaged, but at the very least, I don’t feel that Lansing and I are separated by an imaginary wall.  Instead, I am starting to punch through this wall instead of staying put and being quiet on the other side.  

I feel the best way to get past whatever wall you’ve created around Lansing is to do what I did and take a chance to step inside.  Consider joining APIAVote-MI at our upcoming Lobby Day in Lansing on Tuesday, May 14th.  No experience is needed (all of us were first timers at the February 28th lobby day!).  We will provide the training and materials for our legislator visits.  Please RSVP to receive more details.  We will also join the Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (MAPAAC) at the Capitol on Tuesday, May 14th for their annual celebration of APIA Heritage month with distinguished APAs, legislators and special guests.  Details found here.  Finally, the best way to break down walls is to be introduced to the legislative process at a young age so as not to build the walls in the first place.  For this reason, APIAVote-MI is holding a free Youth Civic Engagement Leadership Training this Saturday, May 11th from 10-3pm.  Please RSVP to attend.  And as always, consider becoming a member.  It is through our membership support that we are able to build our presence in Lansing and make our legislators accountable to our concerns. 

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013, Theresa Tran, President of APIAVote-MI gave a speech at a May Day Rally in Detroit, asking workers to remember the needs of Asian Americans in the discussion around Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  Below is the transcript of the full prepared speech.


My name is Theresa Tran and I’m standing here today on behalf of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote- Michigan in solidarity with our workers to support humane and swift comprehensive immigration reform.

Today is also the first day of Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, and I want to mark this day by sharing a piece of my heritage with you.  I am the daughter of immigrants.  

My father had the good fortune of being sponsored by his sister just before the fall of Saigon almost 40 years ago.  Because of this sponsorship, he was on the second-to-last flight out of Vietnam before it was captured by the communist regime and all travel in and out of the country was shut down.  If it wasn't for his sister’s sponsorship my dad and I would not be here today.  

My mother came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam.  She along with her younger brother endured months of dangerous travel by boat, boat raids by pirates, and a stay in an Indonesian refugee camp before her sister in the U.S. was able to find her and sponsor her to come to here.  It was because of sibling sponsorship that my mom and I are here today.  My aunt was also responsible for sponsoring my grandparents and remaining aunts and uncles in Vietnam over the years.  After waiting over a decade, my mom was finally reunified with her family.

Family is central to the Asian as well as the American identity.  Senate bill 744 needs to prioritize the family-based system, and we need to work together to ask Senators to preserve and improve family reunification in the proposed bill’s provisions.  We’re calling on our community and allies to urge our senators to include siblings and married adult children over 31, and LGBTQ bi-national couples into family reunification visa categories to be inclusive of all of our families. The bill should also be amended to put back the diversity lottery, and Bangladesh back into the country category.  

Today on International Workers’ Day, we are gravely concerned about a federally mandated E-Verify. This will push our most vulnerable workers into the underground economy, falling prey to more unscrupulous employers, labor abuses and wage theft issues.  The U.S. Congressional Budget Office has estimated a loss of more than $17.3 billion in federal tax revenue alone over ten years.

We also want a bill that supports our working communities.  Millions of legal employees could be considered ineligible to work if E-Verify was mandated nationally; this is according to our government’s own audit.  Upwards of 770,000 workers are projected to be fired after faulty “final non-confirmations (FNCs)” are given.  The system has high error rates that kick out citizens and legal residents, with an error rate 20 times higher for foreign-born than U.S.-born workers. As ⅔ of APIAs are foreign-born, the highest of any demographic, with a sizeable portion Limited English Proficient,   this will likely disproportionately affect APIAs.  Other concerns on this issue include the potential of E-Verify becoming a de facto National ID card and used to check statuses in the street, at the airport, or getting housing. Privacy and identity theft risks, unfair and costly burdens on small businesses, and forcing employers to act as immigration agents are additional concerns.

Mandatory national E-Verify could cost small businesses $2.7 billion in the first year, and more than $6.1 billion for all businesses.  Businesses could potentially shift these costs onto workers by paying them less.  That’s why we’re calling for reform that treats all workers with the dignity and humanity we deserve.  

Finally, we want to urge Governor Snyder and our State Representatives to support the New American Opportunity & Fairness Act, a state immigration reform package introduced last week by Reps. Tlaib, Singh, Irwin, Zemke, and Dillon, that allows MI DREAMers to get ID cards, driver’s licenses, and in-state tuition. This act will help implement the Governor’s current Welcoming Michigan initiative, and show that our state is serious about welcoming immigrants here.

We’re calling on you as allies to the Asian & Pacific Islander American community and supporters of our shared American family values to call, email, and meet with your State Representatives and Senators to demand humane and swift comprehensive immigration reform that reunites all families, includes the Diversity Lottery adding Bangladesh back into the country category, and eliminates federally mandated use of E-verify.  

As my parents have always told me, “Nothing is more important than family.”  We cannot wait a decade more for our families to be reunited.  Preserve our families!

Support Proposal 2, Collective Bargaining
By:  Ying Gee

Today, Asian Americans comprise one of the fastest growing populations in the United States.  Many of today’s young APA professionals are forging careers that are quite different from their parent’s generation, especially in the new technology and entrepreneurial areas.  Young APAs entering the workforce will experience greater job opportunities in the mainstream than for previous generations.  Yet, APAs in this country continue to face three paradoxes: (1) society believes that Asian Americans have not experienced historic and ongoing discrimination, when the facts prove otherwise; (2) Americans perceive Asian Americans as the model minority, which is an overgeneralization; and (3) society assumes that Asian Americans are well-represented in all facets of all professionals, although they are not. 

As a result, even when Asian Americans gain access to particular professional areas, invisible barriers creating “glass walls” continues to preclude APAs from gaining entrance to certain career paths within those professions.  Discrimination hinders both upward and lateral mobility.  Although in the aggregate, Asian Americans have higher educational levels, they do not receive the same income as those with comparable educational levels.  Also, Asian Pacific Americans who are unemployed remain out of work for longer periods than other Americans, and face greater language barriers to employment. 

Research shows that workers with college degrees make on average 5% more under collective bargaining agreements.  Workers of color also disproportionally benefit from such agreements.  The difference in wages between union workers and non-union workers, by race, are 22% more for Hispanics, 18% more for African Americans, 17% more for Asian Americans and 12% more for Caucasians. Collective bargaining contracts contain provisions that benefit communities and help to grow the middle class.  Bargaining for provisions that speed response times for police and firefighters, result in more effective discipline and more enrichment classes in the schools, and include better staffing ratios for nurses help local communities.  

That is why young APAs entering the workplace today need to take the lead to preserve their workplace freedoms and to retain the right to negotiate for their well-being.  Supporting Proposal 2, Collective Bargaining in the upcoming election will help young APAs to achieve the American Dream by allowing them to have a voice in the workplace.  The right to bargain collectively is fundamental human rights.  Eliminating these rights would weaken workers’ ability to provide for their families, address issues of dangerous workplaces, discrimination, such as the glass ceiling, living wages, benefits, and dignity on the job.  Collective bargaining helped created our middle class and they level the playing field for workers and employers.  So exercise your rights by voting on November 6, 2012 and remember to vote YES on proposal 2.  

Educators Agree: Vote NO on Proposal 2 to Protect Students, Stand-Up for Local Schools

By:     Kathy Hayes, Executive Director, Michigan Association of School Boards
William Mayes, Executive Director, Michigan Association of School Administrators

Michigan voters face a big test this November 6th when we have our say on a half dozen different ballot proposals.  While we tend to pay more attention to Presidential politics, these ballot proposals can be every bit as important in determining the direction of our state.

That’s why nearly 3,000 local Michigan school boards, principals and superintendents have come together with job providers of all sizes to stand up for our kids, stand up for our local schools, stand up for Michigan’s economic recovery and to urge parents and residents to vote NO on Proposal 2.  

Let’s be clear—nowhere will Proposal 2’s negative impact be felt more severely than in our public schools.

According to the opinion of many legal experts and policy analysts, if Proposal 2 is approved, it will likely repeal laws that help your local public school keep good teachers in the classroom and overturn desperately needed and common sense health care reforms for public employees.  According to the teachers union itself, Proposal 2 would also erase the law that fines teachers for striking illegally, the only law on the books deterring Michigan from sliding back into the days of teacher strikes.

Educators, just like parents and job providers, want our students to receive the best education from the best teachers, but Proposal 2 would eliminate teacher evaluation systems and force us back into a seniority system that makes time on the job more important than performance with our students.  It would also negate the law that allows public schools to determine which teachers teach which subjects.

Proposal 2 would cost school districts $400 million in potential health care savings alone.  Should it pass, districts will be forced to eliminate educational programs and cut staff just to balance the books.  That is the last thing parents want and the last thing our children need.

So do your homework.  Stand up for our Michigan schools and stand up for Michigan kids by voting NO on Proposal 2.  If we don’t get this answer right we won’t simply be failing a test—we will be failing our children.