Deportation Defense
AARW organizes with and for Southeast Asian community members who are directly impacted by criminalization, detention and deportation. We provide accompaniment, leadership development, and collective care for individuals and their families navigating the trauma of deportation and detention.
Our Work
When a community member faces the threat of detention or deportation, AARW shows up.
Preparation and Support: We help impacted families prepare themselves and their families and loved ones for ICE check-ins, connect them with trusted legal partners, and ensure they are never alone in the process.
ICE Accompaniment: AARW staff and trained members attend ICE check-ins to offer solidarity, document state violence, and provide emotional support to those impacted.
Community Campaigns: When someone is detained and consent is given, AARW launches rapid-response case campaigns to mobilize public pressure, raise legal and bond funds, and leverage our relationships with elected officials to demand their release. Through petitions, media outreach, advocacy, and organizing, we’ve successfully reunited community members with their families.
Our work is about fighting for individual community members and building the collective power to challenge the entire criminalization and deportation system.
“The Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) quite literally saved my life when I was facing deportation by I.C.E. As a queer migrant and activist, my life in Pakistan had always been at risk due to my LGBTQ+ identity and advocacy work. When I was detained by I.C.E, I faced the terrifying possibility of being sent back to a country where I could be persecuted or even killed. AARW’s rapid response and unwavering support ensured that did not happen.”
— AARW Member
Community Defense in Action
Since 2017, AARW has been on the frontlines fighting against Southeast Asian deportations. We have organized to defend dozens of community members and successfully reunited families separated by ICE.
In September 2025, ICE detained seven Vietnamese community members in Dorchester, many of them AARW members. We immediately issued a Community Alert with historical context about the Southeast Asian deportation crisis, Know Your Rights materials, and calls to action to mobilize our base to resist this new wave of violence.
Mutual Aid
AARW launched the Southeast Asian Deportation Community Defense Mutual Aid Fund to provide direct financial support to formerly incarcerated Southeast Asian refugees and their families.
Funds raised go toward:
Legal and bond support
Travel and family reunification expenses
Emergency housing, food, and wellness needs
Commissary for detained members
This fund is grounded in solidarity. It’s how our community shows up for one another in moments of crisis and sustains our fight for long-term justice.
In 2024, AARW, alongside many movement partners, helped seed the vision for what has become the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, a rapid response hotline and statewide network of immigrant-led base-building organizations and our allies. Our statewide coalition of multiracial, multilingual immigrant organizers moves together on deportation defense campaigns, trainings, and resources to protect our immigrant and refugee neighbors.
Together, we coordinate rapid response efforts, share resources, and build power across neighborhoods to resist deportations and dismantle the systems that criminalize our people.
If you see immigration enforcement anywhere in Massachusetts, call the LUCE Defense Hotline at 617-370-5023.
