FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28, 2020
Contact: Nikki Metzgar
(202) 599-7642 / nmetzgar@napawf.org

Leading Democratic Senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding the Trump administration suspend implementation of its latest anti-immigrant policy restricting the travel of certain pregnant women into the United States. The policy encourages the racial profiling of Asian travelers, including those who wish to visit their families in the United States, and will make it more difficult for women of color to enter the country.

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow joins issued the following statement in response:

“This policy is driven by racist and misogynist assumptions about women born outside of the United States. It’s another tool for the administration to use to police pregnant people, demonize immigrants, and it sends the message that if you wish to come to the United States, you forgo your dignity. 

Many Asian Americans have family members in other countries who come to visit us. Already, immigration officers can deny entry to the United States without cause and our immigration laws have long been broken. This administration has already racially profiled people of color: from the Muslim ban to the xenophobic and anti-woman treatment of pregnant people at our border, this attack on Asians is an attack on all of us. Because of this new policy, it will be even harder for women of color to enter the country. It is very much the objective of the administration that immigrants should not feel welcome in the United States and that they should fear for the well-being of their families should they attempt to travel here. The Senators deserve immediate answers to their inquiry and we call for the administration to rescind this racist, sexist policy.”

# # #

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only multi-issue, progressive, community organizing and policy advocacy organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and girls in the U.S. NAPAWF’s mission is to build collective power so that all AAPI women and girls can have full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.