Asian American Resource Workshop Denounces DHS “Patriot 2.0” Mass Arrests as Forced Displacement of Immigrant Communities
Asian American Resource Workshop Denounces DHS “Patriot 2.0” Mass Arrests as Forced Displacement of Immigrant Communities
BOSTON, MA – Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) denounces and resists the Department of Homeland Security’s “Patriot 2.0” enforcement initiative, which has escalated mass arrests of immigrants in Boston and across Massachusetts. These arrests are deliberate acts of state violence designed to displace immigrant families and workers from their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, leaving entire communities destabilized and living in fear.
This wave of cruelty comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent emergency ruling to uphold ICE’s authority to target community members based on the color of their skin or the sound of their native tongue, allowing the Trump administration to intensify its anti-immigrant agenda across the country.
While all immigrant communities are being targeted, Asian and Southeast Asian families in particular are experiencing heightened trauma and instability. For decades, formerly incarcerated Southeast Asian refugees have been singled out for mass detention and deportation—fueled by the violent “good vs. bad” immigrant narrative that deems some communities more worthy than others. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Southeast Asia, a war the United States directly waged, and for which it bears responsibility for the mass displacement of our people. The U.S. created the conditions for Southeast Asian refugees’ resettlement here, yet continues to detain and deport us.
As the largest refugee community ever resettled to the United States, Southeast Asians have faced displacement at every stage: first from war and genocide, then through a failed refugee resettlement program that funneled many into poverty and mass incarceration, and now through the deportation machine. This approval of state-sanctioned profiling and harassment deepens cycles of trauma and makes our cities and country less safe for everyone.
The sweeping detainments in our neighborhoods across Massachusetts, including five of AARW’s Vietnamese community members, echo the largest workplace immigration action in over two decades, when federal officials detained more than 450 Korean and Latine workers at a Hyundai manufacturing plant in Georgia. Taken together, these coordinated actions show that immigrant communities across the country remain under immediate and constant threat.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling and the launch of Patriot 2.0 are part of the same agenda, one that uses criminalization and racial profiling to force immigrant communities into fear, silence, and into the prison-to-deportation pipeline,” said Kevin Lam, Co-Executive Director of AARW. “Asian and Southeast Asian families know this trauma all too well. These policies tear apart families, punish workers, and destabilize neighborhoods.”
“But our communities are not powerless,” added Nicole Eigbrett, Co-Executive Director of AARW. “Immigrants, refugees, and communities of color will not crumble under these fascist assaults. We will organize, resist, and keep caring for one another as we always have, to ensure that every person can live with safety and dignity.”
Immigrant workers sustain Massachusetts’ restaurants, health care systems, schools, and small businesses. Yet instead of being valued, they are being punished, and these mass detainments are being used intentionally as tools of displacement that strip immigrant families of their right to stay, contribute, and build community.