The Trump administration proposed a new potential rule on November 17 to ban work permits and limit jobs for people who are under Orders of Supervision (OSUP). To be classified as being under OSUP means that a person has been ordered to be deported but is not physically able to return to their country of origin. The rule has not yet gone into practice, but local organizations and groups across the Northeast have united to challenge the ban. Before it can take effect, the administration must respond to every comment submitted relating to the topic, and members of community-based and advocacy organizations have developed a strategy in response, collecting close to 300 comments.
Across the country, tens of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees are under OSUP. Many fled from their home countries because of the war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia and developed criminal convictions after resettling in under resourced and over policed neighborhoods. They may have been ordered to be deported but remained behind because countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam may not have been willing to take them back. Having their right to work taken away from them creates another barrier for immigrants struggling to rebuild their lives, explained Liana Chow, a Harvard student and outgoing co-coordinator from the Task Force for Asian American Progressive Advocacy (TAPAS).
“The rule is part of a long chain of violence that the United States has committed upon Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian American people,” said Chow. “The United States claims to provide refuge for people at points in history, such as the wars in Southeast Asia. But when the U.S. places refugees into conditions that breed instability, poverty, violence, and over-policing, that’s not refuge.” She added, “There’s been so much legislation over the past few decades that has made various crimes deportable and constricted due process in ways that target communities that are already disadvantaged or [are comprised of] people of color, people who have suffered from U.S. militarism in other ways.”
Organizations such as the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), New York based Southeast Asian Defense Project, and students from TAPAS spearheaded an effort to collect comments in response to the announcement of the possible ban. Together, they created a digital toolkit that teaches about the rule and walks individuals through the process of submitting a comment. Kevin Lam, organizing director with AARW, said that they held community calls to explain the impact of the rule to people and remotely contacted people to spread the word about the gathering of responses. TAPAS even held a virtual “comments party,” a letter writing event where students could participate. Bethany Li, director of the Asian Outreach Unit at GBLS, said that the stories of immigrants came through in the comments they submitted.
“There are a lot of people we work with to make sure they have work permits,” said Li. “…They’ve been ordered deported, but they’re not physically deported. They’ve been in the United States – for some people, two decades – and part of what has allowed them to rehabilitate is the fact that they’ve been able to work. That work permit has meant that they’ve been able to support their families. So many have become integral parts of the community.”
Lam said that under the new Biden administration, he is hoping to see rules that unfairly target immigrants revoked. He said that he is sensitive to the fact that Biden served as vice president under former president Barack Obama, whose administration played a role in creating the system and structure of deportation as it exists now.
“One of our hopes is that he rescinds all of the proposed rules that Trump has tried to put in place over the past four years, including this one,” said Lam. “Within the first hundred days, the priority is going to be focused on COVID-19 and trying to contain the pandemic. But we’re hoping that he’ll call for a moratorium on all deportations, including for folks who have convictions. …Under the Obama administration, Biden was the vice president. Essentially, Obama was someone who built out the deportation machine that allowed Trump to utilize it as much as he did over the past four years. A lot of this is making sure that under the Biden administration, that isn’t the same push, that there is an effort to change that.”
Socheatta Meng, director and co-founder of the Southeast Asian Defense Project, said that she will continue to push for change under the Biden administration. For people under OSUP, specifically Southeast Asians, they are living under a cycle of instability and a legacy of displacement that the U.S. had a part in creating, said Meng.
“For folks who are under Orders of Supervision – they are already living in a precarious situation. They don’t know when they could be ordered removed,” said Meng. “In the case of a lot of folks, they’re living in this grey area. A lot of folks have rebuilt their lives. …What this executive order does is it further destabilizes the lives of our community members who are already facing this long legacy of instability. What it translates to, on a more concrete level, is that people are already living in fear. With this order, people would have the ability to work and support themselves removed [from them]. People are forced to choose between deporting themselves or working under the tables.”
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