Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)

ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, is a San Francisco Bay Area group working to educate, organize, and empower the Bay Area South Asian communities to end violence, oppression, racism and exploitation within and against our diverse communities.

Since 2000, we’ve been engaged in campaigns around racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, immigration justice, gender-based exploitation, and peace in South Asia and the United States. We are best known for our work on complicated crises affecting South Asian communities (e.g. Reddy case, INS special registration).

June 26, 2007

Dear Senator,

We, the undersigned organizations that serve the South Asian community in the San Francisco Bay Area, are writing to express our concerns about the direction that the Senate is taking in immigration reform through Senate Bill 1639. The Senate bill does not balance the civil rights of immigrants and will inevitably lead to separated families, isolation and fear, and distrust of law enforcement and government officials.

A beautiful day, good people and a powerful rally. But, we certainly needed more South Asian representation ...

photo credit: Poonam from Design Action, Thanks!

We at ASATA oppose the continuing domestic “war on terrorism” and “war on immigrants”: movements that we understand as intricately linked.

For us, opposition to and mobilization around the various versions of HR4437 means showing our solidarity with other immigrant communities, particularly our Latino brothers and sisters, as they fight what is also our fight.

Immigration to this country does not denote positions of privilege, but of plight. The majority of us did not make a decision to migrate from our homes, families, and communities: we were forced here by the violent effects of global economic inequity. The U.S. government is using a double-edged sword as it coerces countries in the Majority World into Free Trade Agreements and then simultaneously criminalizes the people displaced by them.

South Asian Advocates Strongly Urge Congress To Pass Immigration Reform That Respects Civil Rights Of Immigrants

As representatives of organizations that serve South Asians across the United States — from empowering women, workers and youth to protecting the civil rights and liberties of ethnic and religious minorities — we see firsthand the impact of the immigration system on our community. As Congress prepares to pass the broadest immigration reform law in decades, we urge lawmakers to adopt sensible and humane solutions to fix the broken immigration system in the United States.

We’re heartbroken. Birjinder Anant died last week in Oakland.

We knew him as a builder of activist movements, teller of bad jokes, reader of good books, connector of communities, tapper of shoulders, and a good friend to so many of us.

Birjinder has been the heart and soul of ASATA since his first meeting on September 18, 2001. His strength, commitment, and humility were an inspiration to many, and he was a driving force behind much Asian American and South Asian American activist work in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. His loss has truly shaken us. We offer our deepest condolences to others who knew and loved Birjinder as we did.