ICE could be waiting for you at the airport gate
Issue #242 covers the expansion of ICE’s tactics, Phillip Wang making his first feature film in more than a decade and Vivek Ramaswamy getting booed in his own hometown ... by young conservatives.
Today’s stories kick off with plainclothes ICE officers at American airports, where travelers with open immigration cases are now being detained on their way through. Then, we pivot to entertainment, with Phillip Wang believing that Hollywood has given up on Asian American stories … and so he’s making his own feature 11 years after his last one.
Local news follow. In St. Paul, the mayor who made history last November is now the subject of an outside workplace investigation. Moving on, trouble of a different kind found GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy last week, when young conservatives jeered him off a stage in his Ohio hometown.
Next, FBI Director Kash Patel faces a setback in one of his defamation suits. In New Zealand, the foreign minister will not take back the line he aimed at a Chinese-born lawmaker. We then close in Japan, where Japanese nationals have fallen to a 42-year low and foreign residents have passed four million for the first time since tracking began.
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ICE is now waiting at the gate for immigrants with pending cases
Plainclothes immigration officers have reportedly detained travelers at over 15 airports in recent weeks. Unsurprisingly for the Trump administration, the arrests now reach past people that have been ordered removed.
Asian immigrants can spend years in green card backlogs while holding valid work permits. However, the DHS says a pending application and work authorization confer no legal status. One man’s case suggests how far back the government is willing to look.
What else we’re tracking
‘Hollywood gave up on us’: Wong Fu to release a new feature film after 11 years
Phillip Wang pitched his romantic dramedy in 2018 and spent years trying to get it made. Now, Wong Fu’s first feature in 11 years will be self-produced on a small budget by choice.
Historic Hmong mayor accused of creating ‘sexualized work environment’
Kaohly Her was elected mayor of St. Paul last November as the first Hmong person and first woman elected to the job. By April, her police chief had filed a complaint that led the city to hire outside investigators. She denies wrongdoing.
Ramaswamy booed off stage in Ohio, exposing GOP rift weeks before midterm sprint
Ohio’s Republican gubernatorial nominee had 30 minutes booked at a youth conference in his own hometown … but he lasted only 14. Hecklers pressed him on critical issues from the opening, and one line about which generation would “pay the price” apparently drew the sharpest reaction.
Kash Patel loses $250K win against blogger who called him a ‘googly-eyed Kremlin b*tch’
A federal judge has thrown out the $250,000 judgment the FBI director and his foundation won by default against a California blogger. The ruling turned on where the case was filed rather than what the blogger wrote.
New Zealand foreign minister tells Chinese-born MP to ‘go back to where you’ve come from’
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters directed the problematic line at a Green Party lawmaker born in Tianjin. The prime minister called his remarks inappropriate, while China’s embassy lodged a formal protest. He refuses to apologize.
Japan’s population shrinks to 42-year low as foreign residents hit record high
New data reveals that the number of Japanese nationals fell below 120 million for the first time in 42 years. Foreign residents moved the other way and passed four million, though officials are still raising the bar for those seeking permanent residency.
Why read Issue #242?
Mostly, Issue #242 is about how easily a person’s footing can be pulled out. As we can see, a pending green card application does not stop an arrest at the airport gate. A foreign minister demands an opposition lawmaker to go back where he came from, while Ohio’s Republican nominee couldn’t even finish a speech in his own hometown. Japan counts four million foreign residents while making permanent residency harder to reach. St. Paul, however, sits apart, where a historic mayor is being held to the same workplace standard as anyone else.
So, what holds this issue together? It’s who sets the terms and how quickly can they change. A filmmaker financing his own film and a blogger being freed of a six-figure judgment suggest the terms are more contestable than they look.
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