Resolution to Express Solidarity with Immigrant and Refugee Communities and to Hold Future Meetings in Immigrant/Refugee Sanctuary Cities

Dear Dr. Schlund-Vials and Dr. Wong,
We write to submit this “Resolution to Express Solidarity with Immigrant and Refugee
Communities and to Hold Future Meetings in Immigrant/Refugee Sanctuary Cities” for
consideration by the Association for Asian American Studies Board and Advocacy
Committee at the April 2017 meeting in Portland.

The text of the resolution, and list of co-signers, is available here: [and appended]
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ANf7jqor5df4bEUtn-zhvjm8y5nW52Nl11uR0OU_Xg/edit

Sincerely yours,

Jason Oliver Chang, Assistant Professor of History and Asian American Studies, Associate
Director of Asian and Asian American Studies, University of Connecticut
Moon-Ho Jung, Associate Professor, History, University of Washington
Viet Nguyen, Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies
and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
A. Naomi Pak, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
Chandan Reddy, Associate Professor, English, University of Washington
Naoko Shibusawa, Associate Professor of History, American Studies & Ethnic Studies,
Brown University
Elena Shih, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Brown University
Justin Tse, Visiting Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies Program, Northwestern
University
Naoko Wake, Associate Professor, History, Michigan State University
Ellen Wu, Associate Professor, History, and Director, Asian American Studies Program,
Indiana University Bloomington

AAAS 2017 Sanctuary Resolution
Resolution to Express Solidarity with Immigrant and Refugee Communities and to Hold Future Meetings in Immigrant/Refugee Sanctuary Cities
Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies is an organization dedicated to
scholarship and teaching related to immigrant and refugee communities in the United States;
and
Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies is dedicated to fostering knowledge
and scholarship that engages the causes and consequences of xenophobia, racism, and
Islamophobia; and
Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies supports scholarship and teaching that
highlights the nation’s history of exclusion, detention, and profiling based on race and
national origin; and
Whereas the U.S. government has implemented policies to exclude immigrants and refugees
based on national-origin, including the immediate suspension of visas for nationals from
seven majority-Muslim nations, and
Whereas the U.S. government has implemented administrative directives, executive orders,
and policies to restrict refugees fleeing from zones of war and conflict; and
Whereas the U.S. government has implemented administrative directives, executive orders,
and policies that encourage racial profiling based on presumed citizenship status, and
Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies supports scholarship and teaching
about these issues without censorship or intimidation to promote the free exchange of ideas;
Be it resolved that the Association for Asian American Studies commits to hold all future
national conferences in immigrant/refugee “Sanctuary Cities,” and that in each conference
city, AAAS members will engage in substantive actions to oppose current US policies
resulting in the racial exclusion, detention, and vilification of immigrants and refugees.