Released prisoner detained by ICE + Davis wine app + California’s first Asian sheriff: Your AAPI newsletter
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It is Thursday, Jan. 16, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter, brought to you by yours truly.
Here’s a recap on the stories I recently covered and issues I’m following:
Charles Joseph, an American born in Fiji, was convicted of robbing a convenience store in 2007. He served 12 years of his 13-year sentence and was found suitable to be released in May. But instead of being able to reunite with his family, he was immediately detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials allow ICE to enter state prisons and detain individuals for the purpose of deportation upon their release, a practice which has resulted in thousands of immigrants eventually being deported.
Joseph is now in the process of removal proceedings, which would deport him to Fiji, where he hasn’t been since he left with his family as a child. His wife and two daughters are based in Sacramento.
A grant for Census 2020 outreach to Asian Pacific Islander communities was open for application. The grant, called the APIs Rise Fund, aims to increase the capacity and impact of Asian Pacific Islander philanthropic giving in the Sacramento region. Grant founders May O. Lee and Elaine Abelaye-Mateo hope to fill the disparities in funding to the growing API population in the area and reflect its needs. But, the deadline was Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Christy Serrato, founder and CEO of a Davis-based customers engagement platform for next generation wine consumers, talks about how she found her idea and how she overcame challenges of raising venture capital as a female entrepreneur, among other tips and advice.
In other news, Taiwanese Americans traveled back to vote in Taiwan’s heated presidential election and talk about the reasons to their preferences of the candidates, NBC News reports.
A growing number of Iranian students are being vetted and denied entry by U.S. authorities upon arrival, despite having gone through an intense approval process, The Guardian reports. Last year, some have their visas canceled and were stopped from boarding U.S.-bound flights.
Jonny Kim, an ex-Navy SEAL and Harvard graduate, is NASA’s first Korean American astronaut, CBS News reports. The Los Angeles native is among 13 men and women picked from 18,000 applicants to complete NASA’s astronaut training program. They are now set for future missions, which could include a trip to the moon and Mars.
Also in the cohort is Jasmin Moghbeli, the first Iranian American to be an NASA astronaut. Moghebeli and her family fled Iran to escape from the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Daily Mail reports. She grew up in New York, graduated from MIT and flew more than 150 missions in Afghanistan during her time as a decorated helicopter gunship pilot.
This New York Times article compares how textbooks from two states, Texas and California, differ in narrative, reflecting a political divide that shape what students learn about the nation’s history.
These collegiate hip hop dance crews in San Diego are redefining themselves and finding community and identity in dance, The San Diego Union Tribune reports.
San Francisco just swore in the first Asian American sheriff in California’s history, CNN reports. Paul Miyamoto is the second sheriff in the department’s history to rise from the ranks to be elected sheriff.
Artist and activist Susan Lieu’s performance of a one-woman show about avenging her mother’s death explores and investigates the trauma, and have brought both pride and tears in the audience, the Daily Pilot reports. The seven-month pregnant artist is currently performing in Seattle.
For things to do in town and beyond, don’t miss “Human Trafficking In Businesses,” a conference organized by My Sister’s House, on Friday at Sacramento State University. My Sister’s House is a Sacramento-based nonprofit organization serving Asian and Pacific Islander and other under-served women and children impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking by providing a culturally appropriate and responsive safe haven.
Regional and state experts and survivors will address human trafficking at the conference.
Mark your calendars for an evening with The Bee’s Pulitzer prize winners, photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr. and editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman, on Jan. 28 as they explore the experience of incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II. The event will be held at Tsakopoulos Library Galleria. Register here.
Kitagaki is the author and photographer of the book “Behind Barbed Wire” in which he chronicled the Japanese internment and photographed survivors in a 10-year pilgrimage around the country.
A multimedia exhibition on the legacy of Dr. Isao Fujimoto, founding member of the Asian American Studies department and community development program, is opening at 9 a.m. Jan. 25 at the University of California, Davis. It will run from until Feb. 21.
An escape room and game tournament organized by Hmong Youth and Parents United will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 31 at Hope Center in Sacramento.
Sure, skiing is fun, but can it beat reading a great book drinking hot cocoa in the California winter? My pick this week is The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, a historical novel about a North Vietnamese mole in a South Vietnamese army, who was embedded before and after they fled to the Los Angeles in exile. It won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I’m still reading it but am already hooked!
Finally: What do you want to read about on Sacramento or California’s AAPI population? Send your thoughts to me at tyu@sacbee.com.
That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading!
Theodora Yu covers Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in California for The Sacramento Bee. She is a member of Report for America’s 2019 corps of journalists.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 9:56 AM.