Immigrant Rights

As of 2022, over two-thirds of Asian Americans in Montgomery County are foreign-born. We defend all immigrants’ rights to dignity, safety, and due process, as well as their ability to thrive as essential parts of our local community.

The Asian American community has been profoundly shaped by U.S. immigration law. For nearly a century, exclusionary, national-origin quota policies barred most Asian immigration, beginning in the late 1800s.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 dismantled those quotas, opening the door to the waves of immigration that followed. Because of this history, the majority of Asian Americans today are immigrants themselves.

Against this backdrop — and amid today's anti-immigrant policy climate — MoCoPAAN stands up for immigrant rights, calling out xenophobia, overreach in federal enforcement, and violations of due process.

Birthright Citizenship

While Asian Americans have been present in the U.S. since before the nation’s founding, people from Asia faced highly restrictive laws prohibiting them from emigrating to the U.S. Notably, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese immigrants for 60 years.

In 1965, the last restriction was lifted. The immigration laws shaped the nature of the Asian American population today. So did U.S. foreign policy — including war, conflict and colonization. Two-thirds of Asian Americans are immigrants.

In 1898, a Chinese American cook, Wong Kim Ark, won his case before the Supreme Court. Since then, birthright citizenship has been settled law.

In 2025, Executive Order 14160 attempted to overrule that right, triggering multiple state lawsuits in federal courts. If 5-15% of Asian Americans came under the Executive Order, then 1.2 to 3.7 million out of 24.8 million Asian Americans would be affected.

The case that advanced to the Supreme Court was Trump v. Barbara. An oral hearing was held on April 1, 2026.

Wong Kim Ark (National Archives)

MoCoPAAN joined scores of civil and immigrant rights organizations who defended a person’s constitutional right to U.S. citizenship if they were born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' nationalities. As an organization, we:

Signed an amicus brief led by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) in State of Washington v. Trump
Endorsed a digital rally and campaign led by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) in Trump v. Barbara
Attended rallies outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments for the Trump v. CASA and Trump v. Barbara cases

Due Process

The status of undocumented immigrants is far more complex than the public narrative. Given the nuances, the need for discretionary hearings by administrative judges, not untrained militarized agents seizing people on the streets are in order.

To fill daily quotas, federal agents have targeted residents and accelerated detention and deportation without proper procedures.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates about 5% of Maryland's total population is “undocumented." However, the figure of 225,000 to 373,000 including people with visa overstays and "liminal" statuses such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and pending asylum cases.

Among them, the Migration Policy Institute estimates the Montgomery County’s AAPI community at around 16% of the county’s “undocumented” population.

Between 2024 and 2025, the numbers of “undocumented” residents who came from Asian countries and were detained jumped from 19 to 191. The majority (51%) had no criminal convictions but immigration-related civil violations.

MoCoPAAN members monitored a court hearing and attended rallies held in support of a national figurehead - Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A Maryland resident, Garcia was illegally deported to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador in March 2025. Later, the federal government admitted an "administrative error.”

However, since Garcia’s return, the federal government leveled a new controversial charge that a Tennessee judge said may have been “vindictive.” The federal government has continued to seek to deport Garcia to different countries.

"Why due process matters for every American, including non-citizens" — International Rescue Committee
How have Asian Americans been affected by the lack of due process?
- Melissa Tran: Former Vietnamese refugee – now a mother and small business owner in Maryland - unnecessarily detained prior to deportation by the government, federal judge in Washington state says
- ChongLy Scott Thao: Hmong grandfather and U.S. citizen forced out of his house by ICE in his underwear in freezing weather in Minnesota
- 200 South Korean nationals detained by ICE during a massive raid on a South Georgia Hyundai plant planning to file a lawsuit
Why Asian American leaders urge community to stand in solidarity with Latino Americans — Star Adviser

Profiling

In Fall 2025, the Supreme Court signaled support for profiling based on race or ethnicity, the language spoken or accent, or workplace location. In reversing lower courts’ findings of profiling, the Supreme Court contradicted long held constitutional law on:

Unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Amendment)
Equal treatment regardless of race (Equal Protection Clause), and
The Court’s own decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College — the Harvard affirmative action case where the Court held that the government can no longer use race as a factor.

With the Supreme Court's implicit approval of ethnic profiling by federal agents, already strained relationships between law enforcement and minority, working class, immigrant, and unhoused communities have deepened. A critique of the Supreme Court position follows here.

Racial Profiling Awareness Image_edited.

Many Asian Americans have encountered profiling in the context of door-to-door canvassing by ICE agents looking for Asians in the neighborhood, workplace discrimination during heightened tensions between U.S. and China, Covid-related hate, and post-9/11 Islamophobic targeting by the government of Muslim Americans in public places like transportation and by private persons of actual or perceived Muslim Americans.

The U.S. excluded Chinese immigrants for 60 years under the Chinese Exclusion Act. By the infamous Executive Order 9066, the U.S. also incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans (the majority of whom were U.S. born) during WWII. The U.S. used the pretext of military necessity, alleging that Japanese Americans were disloyal. Years later, researchers found that the U.S. had intentionally suppressed evidence to the contrary.

Due to the ongoing framing of Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners,” many Asian Americans are sensitized to the plight of immigrants who are similarly targeted. Several advocacy organizations have spoken out against immigration policies that profile any persons based on race, ethnicity and/or national origin.

As an organization, MoCoPAAN:

Monitored state bills that protect residents from federal government overreach
Compiled and circulated resources for donors to support local community organizations in Minnesota
Attended virtual events with community leaders around incidents in Minnesota and Georgia
Participated in rallies including No Kings and “We Are All DC”
Signed a solidarity statement along with over 220 groups to oppose the country of origin-based entry ban and in support of targeted communities – an effort led by Muslims for Just Futures and UndocuBlack Network with support from Building Movement Project.

"White Drivers Got a Warning. Latino Drivers Got Detained" — NYT Opinion (Video)
"From Japanese American Incarceration to the China Initiative, Discrimination Against AAPI Communities Must End, News and Commentary" — ACLU
"For survivors of Japanese American prison camps, Trump’s deportation campaign has disturbing echoes" — CNN
Local Immigrant Rights Organizations
Representative Pramila Jayapal’s Immigrant Justice Resistance Lab Trainings