Today’s stories begin with a new tracker putting a number on how far arrests of Asian immigrants have climbed nationwide. We then go to the courts for three cases, with none ending the same way: A Texas judge signed off on closing a birth tourism business without ruling it broke the law; in Chicago, a jury convicted a Customs and Border Protection officer on all 11 counts; lastly, a Mississippi grand jury declined to charge anyone in an Asian and African American teen’s death.
Two more fights played out online. A KPMG manager says she was fired, while Converse pulled a controversial ad. Xi Jinping then lands in Washington with a trade truce running out, Joyce Kennard dies at 85 and Michelle Zauner studies Korean in Seoul.
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Asian immigrant arrests climb coast to coast, new tracker shows
ICE arrests of Asian immigrants are up 436% from the comparable period under the previous administration, a new Stop AAPI Hate tracker shows. California alone accounts for more than a quarter of those arrests.
More than half of AAPI respondents say the crackdown has affected them.
What else we’re tracking
Texas birth tourism case ends without a court finding of wrongdoing
A Houston-area postpartum center accused of perpetuating birth tourism agreed to shut down. Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton called the closure a victory, but no court actually ruled on whether it broke the law.
Border protection agent convicted of sexually assaulting 4 Chinese women
A federal jury in Chicago convicted a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer on all 11 counts after four women described their encounters at suburban hotels. One had seen his face on WeChat before he knocked on her door.
No charges in Nolan Wells’ death, but his family keeps pushing
A grand jury declined to charge anyone in the death of the Black and Filipino American college football player. However, the family’s attorney released an independent autopsy and wants the case to stay open.
NYC woman says she was fired after billionaire Bill Ackman shared clip of her calling a man a ‘Zionist pig’
An Asian American manager says a viral clip of hers started in the middle. What came first, she reveals, was a man following her through a Manhattan gym. Days after Bill Ackman shared it, she was fired.
Converse apologizes for Karina ad after KKK, lynching backlash
Converse pulled a sneaker ad featuring the Aespa singer after social media users saw a Klan hood in her spotlit skirt and a lynching in the shoes she held. The company has not said who approved it.
Why rolling out the red carpet for Xi is a must for Trump
Xi Jinping arrives in Washington with Taiwan arms sales and rare earths unresolved and a trade truce expiring Nov. 10. Meanwhile, families of Americans detained in China want their relatives raised at the table.
Joyce Kennard, California Supreme Court’s first Asian American justice, dies at 85
Born in Indonesia, Kennard was held in a Japanese internment camp there and lost a leg as a teenager. She immigrated at 20, worked as a secretary and reached California’s Supreme Court three years after her first judicial appointment.
‘Crying in H Mart’ author Michelle Zauner turns her mother’s Korean diary into a new memoir
A handwritten diary Zauner found among her mother’s belongings gave her another reason to study Korean, which she spent a year doing in Seoul. Her next memoir takes its title from a phrase she misunderstood at a hair salon.
Why read Issue #262?
Much of the critical information in this issue were gathered by the very people they describe. Stop AAPI Hate, which emerged at the height of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, now maintains a tally of Asian immigrant arrests. Meanwhile, Chinese women in suburban Illinois passed around a photograph of a man posing as police years before it turned up in a federal trial. Then, Nolan Wells’ parents commissioned their own autopsy, which landed on the same undetermined finding as the state’s.
You see, nobody really required any of that. Asian Americans are about 65% foreign-born, the only U.S. racial group where that holds, so much of what is known about our community exists because someone chose to write it down. That’s the importance of the work we do, and you can support it.
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The Rebel Yellow is supported in part by funding from The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). Funders do not influence story selection, reporting, or editorial decisions. All editorial content is independently produced by The Rebel Yellow team.