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👋 Good morning, and welcome to AAPI Nation—The Yappie’s roundup of the stories impacting Asian American + Pacific Islander communities across the states. Get used to seeing us in your inbox!
This Friday, we’re honoring Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian American elected to Congress. The Sikh and Punjabi politician served in the House from 1957 to 1963 and famously said, “There is no room in the United States of America for second-class citizenship.”
Now, on to the latest in AAPI news.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
🗳️ Nine organizations, including OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates and the NAACP, are seeking to bar the Trump administration from dispatching armed agents to polling places as the midterm elections near, per the New York Times.
🚨 South Asian communities are on edge after a man stabbed a Sikh truck driver 17 times at a remote rest stop in Wyoming. The suspect is charged with attempted first-degree murder; local officials have not yet released a motive, NPR reports.
🩺 Native Hawaiians in need of Medicaid will not be able to opt out of work requirements under the Trump administration’s new eligibility criteria—unlike federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes, the KFF Health News reports.
Health providers worry the mandate will worsen already-existing health disparities.
⛓️💥 The GOP-led Alaska state attorney general’s office dropped voter fraud charges against 11 American Samoans three years after threatening to imprison them, per Bolts.
The family maintains they were not aware that American Samoans are classified as U.S. nationals instead of citizens, and thus barred from voting in elections outside the U.S. territory.
🏥 New military records reveal the scope of health risks posed by pesticide contamination at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, The War Horse reports in partnership with The Margin.
Andersen is one of several Pentagon sites maintained on the island, which has suffered environmental damage after decades of military build-up.
📚 Roughly 1 in 4 Illinois teachers and students have engaged with Asian American curricula five years after the state became the first in America to mandate AAPI history in public schools, per data covered by WBEZ.
🪖 Representatives from Guam and the Marianas met with around 100 U.S. officials this week in a bid to demand greater federal support for the infrastructure required to sustain expansion of military resources in the Pacific, according to Pacific Daily News.
🔍 The organization that has hosted San Francisco’s annual Chinese New Year Parade for nearly 70 years is facing backlash amid allegations that board members sexually harassed and assaulted a female staffer for years, San Francisco Standard reports.
🦠 The American Samoa Department of Health is receiving over $250,000 in federal funding to expand its study of infectious diseases in the region.
📢 A Chinese American scholar whose work focuses on Myanmar has been detained in a facility in China for over 100 days, according to his wife.
She is calling on the federal government to bring him home as the State Department continues to warn Americans traveling there to beware the “risk of unjust arrest or detention,” CBS News reports.
🕊️ Palikapu Dedman, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and environmental activist who advocated for Native Hawaiian rights through the Pele Defense Fund, died at age 80, per Hawaii News Now.
🚔 An aide to Democratic California Assemblymember Catherine Stefani was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and is currently detained in Nevada, according to her office.
Ho Yin Mo previously anchored Chinese-language newscasts at San Francisco TV station KTSF.
✍️ Michelle Zauner, the author of “Crying in H Mart” who first shot to fame as singer Japanese Breakfast, announced plans to release a second memoir via Elle.
“Thank You for Your Suffering” is set to publish next April and will chronicle her experience living in Seoul and connecting with her mom’s family.
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Founded in 2018, The Yappie is an independent, nonprofit news organization reporting on Asian American + Pacific Islander power, politics, and influence. Learn more.
