In this NCVA Reporter:

Events

Funding Opportunities

Jobs/Internships

Tips

News

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Events

Conference on Sustainable Development in Vietnam

November 13, 2003

University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, U.S.A.

(7603 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD 20742)

Adele H. Stamp Student Union Building, Prince George’s Room (1210)

Chairpersons

* Prof. Robert A. Scalapino, Robson Research Professor of Government Emeritus, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley

* Dr. Lois T. Vietri, University of Maryland at College Park, Director, the Maryland Vietnam Partnership.

Sponsoring Organizations and Contact

* The Office of International Programs, the University of Maryland, College Park, U.S.A.

* The Maryland Vietnam Partnership, Dr. Lois Vietri, phone: (301) 405-4152, fax: (301) 405-4773

* The Vietnamese Professionals of America, Inc. (VPA), Mr. Thuan V. Truong (email: ttruong@attglobal.net, phone: (703) 861-1610, fax: (703) 917-8881, website: http://www.vpa-inc.org)

Agenda

8:00 - 9:00: Breakfast

9:00 - 9:15: Opening remarks

9: 30 - 11:00: Panel I: (30 minutes per presentation)

* The Vietnam Project at Texas Tech, Dr. James R. Reckner, the Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, U.S.A.

* Current Dynamics of Vietnamese Society and External Challenges, Prof. C. Thayer, College of Defence and Strategic Studies, Australian Defence College, Australia.

* Sino-Vietnamese Relations in the 21^st Century, Dr. Henry J. Kenny, Center for Strategic Studies, the CNA Corporation, Virginia, U.S.A.

11:00 - 12:00: Panel I questions/answers

12:00 - 1:15: Lunch at UM facilities (free for speakers and staff).

1: 30 - 4:00: Panel II: (30 minutes per presentation)

* Environment and Development in Vietnam, Dr. Mai T. Truyet and Nguyen M. Quan, Vietnamese American Science & Technology Association, California, U.S.A.

* Vietnamese Culture and Economic Development, Do Thong Minh, Mekong Center Co, Tokyo, Japan.

* Education & Economic Development in Vietnam, Dr. Binh Tran-Nam, Faculty of Law, University of South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

* Towards a Sustainable Rural Development Policy for Vietnam, Khai Q. Nguyen, VPA, U.S.A.

* Land Reform in Vietnam, Truong V. Thuan, VPA, U.S.A.

4:00 - 5:00: Panel II questions/answers

5:00 - 6:00: Closing and reception

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OCAPICA College Application Essay Workshop-Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003

Orange County Asian & Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA)
presents

It's the most stressful month of the fall.
You can do nothing,
You can do something,
or you can…

Do The "Write" Thing
A College Application Essay Workshop

OCAPICA's college application workshop will show you how to "do the write thing" when it comes to the college application essay.  We will show you what topics are compelling, how to make your writing lively and common mistakes most applicants make.

When:
Saturday, November 15, 2003
10:00AM-12:00PM

Where:
OCAPICA
12900 Garden Grove Bl vd. Suite 240A
Garden Grove, CA 92843

Costs:
Free!!! Just bring yourself and your essay

Please RSVP or more information:
Jennifer Kuo jkuo@ocapica.org
Young Joo yjoo@ocapica.org
(714) 636-9095
www.ocapica.org

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Democratic Presidential Candidates
Coming to APA Townhall Meeting
on Nov. 17 in Washington, D.C.

Co-Sponsors:
* Asian American Action Fund (AAA-Fund)
* Asian Pacific American Presidential Candidates Forum Committee

Date: Monday, November 17, 2003

Time: Doors open 4:30pm
Program starts promptly at 4:45 pm (new starting time)

Location: Capital Hilton, Senate Congressional Rm
16th and K Streets, NW
Washington, DC
Metro: Farragut North or Farragut West

Participants: Gov. Howard Dean and other Democratic Presidential Candidates (TBA)

RSVP by Friday, November 14 to:
apapresforum@yahoo.com


Honorary Chairs (in formation)
U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui
U.S. Rep. David Wu
U.S. Rep. Mike Honda
U.S. Rep.Chris Van Hollen
U.S. Ambassador M. Osman Siddique (former)
U.S. Rep. Robert Underwood (former)
Washington Governor Gary Locke
MD State Delegate Majority Leader Kumar Barve
MD State Delegate Susan Lee
MD Democratic State Chair Isiah "Ike" Leggett

Committtee Members (in formation)
Danny Aranza, Irene B. Bueno, Gloria T. Caoile, Roger Chiang, Asuntha Chiang-Smith, Toby Chaudhuri, Jin Chon, Edward Fujimoto, Maria Haley, Bel Leong-Hong, Paul Igasaki, Betsy Kim, Henry Lee, David Namura, Nguyen Minh Chau, Gautam Dutta, Jadine Nielsen, Varun Nikore, Willard Tom, John Young, Francey Lim Youngberg, Jinhee Wilde, Yeni Wong

Paid for by the Asian American Action (AAA) Fund, 707 H Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20001
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

If you would like to be featured on our Sponsors page (http://www.aaa-fund.org/main/sponsors.asp) as a sponsor of this historic event, please contact Irene Bueno at info@aaa-fund.org or 202-530-4702.

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Funding Opportunities

Community Support for Hunger Relief, Health, Nutrition, and Youth
Albertson's Corporate Contributions Program

(http://www1.albertsons.com/corporate/pr/brochure.asp?cat=3&subcat=2)

Albertson's supports nonprofit organizations in communities across the nation where employees and customers live and work. Giving is focused on hunger relief, education and youth development, and health and nutrition programs. Applications are accepted throughout the year. For more information and to access application guidelines and procedures, visit the above website.

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Support for Programs Improving Individual Lives and Surroundings
Educational Foundation of America

(http://www.efaw.org/)

The Educational Foundation of America strives to better humanity and the world we inhabit by improving individual lives and their surroundings through education and awareness. The Foundation supports nonprofit organizations across the nation in areas including, but not limited to, the environment, human overpopulation and reproductive freedom, Native Americans, arts, education, drug policy reform, peace and security, medicine and human services. Applications may be submitted year-round. For more information about Foundation programs and application procedures please visit the above website.

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Rohm and Haas Supports Company Communities
Rohm and Haas Company Contributions Program

(http://www.rohmhaas.com/community/giving/guideline.htm)

The Rohm and Haas Company Contributions Program focuses on improving the quality of life in company communities by addressing critical community needs and improving the quality of science and math education worldwide. In addition to community-based programs, the company also supports U.S.-based, national programs that take place in and directly serve a company community. Areas of interest include education, environment, civic and community programs, health and human services, and arts and culture. Applications are accepted year-round. Visit the above website for more information or to apply online.

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Grants for Global and National Social Justice Efforts
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

(http://www.mott.org/)

The mission of the Mott Foundation is to support efforts that promote a just, equitable, and sustainable society. To accomplish this, the Foundation provides support for nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. that provide programs with national scope that fight poverty, strengthen democratic societies, and protect the global environment. Additionally, the Foundation supports local programs that improve the community of Flint, Michigan. Letters of inquiry may be submitted year-round. Visit the above website for more information.

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Technology Equipment for Underserved Schools
Beaumont Foundation of America

(http://www.bmtfoundation.com/bfa/us/public/en/grants/)

The Beaumont Foundation of America is dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals by providing technology to historically underserved schools and communities. The Foundation’s education grants provide technology equipment for public, private, charter, and parochial schools with underserved populations. The education grants are one-year awards in the form of Toshiba-branded technology equipment with an average technology grant value of $75,000. In 2004, the Foundation will make grants in 29 different states. The Foundation also provides technology equipment to community-based organizations serving individuals at or below the poverty level through its community grants program. Application guidelines for the community program will be available later on in 2004. Letters of interest for education grants will be accepted online November 17 to December 10, 2003. To determine eligible states, or to apply online, visit the above website.

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Awards Recognize Social Change Leaders
Leadership for a Changing World

(http://leadershipforchange.org/)

Leadership for a Changing World is seeking nominations of community leaders across the country who are successfully tackling tough social problems. Seventeen outstanding social justice leaders and leadership teams that are not broadly known beyond their immediate community or field will receive awards of $100,000 to advance their work, plus $15,000 for learning activities that will support their work. The program seeks to encourage a public dialogue that recognizes a wide variety of leaders and leadership models as authentic and important to social progress. To this end, the program includes a major, multi-year research initiative and numerous forums to bring awardees together with other leaders to share experiences, address specific challenges, and explore opportunities for collaboration. Leaders may be nominated by someone who is well acquainted with the leader or the leadership group and can attest to their qualifications. Deadline for submitting nominations is January 6, 2004. Visit the above website for more information.

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PacifiCare Provides Community Support
PacifiCare Foundation

(http://www.pacificare.com/commonPortal/index.jsp)

The mission of the PacifiCare Foundation is to improve the quality of the lives of the disadvantaged or underserved in geographical areas where PacifiCare Health Systems does business, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Guam. The Foundation provides support in the areas of human and social services, seniors, children and youth, education, and health promotion. Grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 are made to support specific projects. Deadlines to submit applications are January 1 and July 1, annually. Visit the above website for more information or to access application forms and guidelines.

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Grants Support Library Sciences
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences: National Leadership Grants for Libraries

(http://www.imls.gov/grants/library/lib_nlgl.asp)

The National Leadership Grants for Libraries program offers matching grants in three funding categories for libraries, and one funding category for joint library-museum partnerships. The three programs for libraries support training and education in library and information science, research in library science and demonstration projects to test solutions to real world problems, and leadership in the preservation and/or digitization of library resources. The Model Programs of Library-Museum Collaboration program provides funds for innovative projects that model how museums and libraries can work together to expand their service to the public. The deadline for submitting applications for the three programs open to libraries is February 1, annually, while the deadline for the library-museum collaboration is April 1, annually. Visit the above website for more information.

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Jobs/Internships

JOB OPENING - DIRECTOR OF ASIAN AND REFUGEE HEALTH PROGRAMS

SEAMAAC (A consortium of Southeast Asian agencies, located in Philadelphia PA, is searching for a director for our health programs department. Please contact me if you know of any appropriate candidates as we conduct our search. Thanks!

Here's our job announcement. (For more information about our agency, please go to www.SEAMAAC.org)

       Barbara Levin, M.Ed.

       SEAMAAC

       215 476-9640

       BHLevin@aol.com

MSW needed to oversee health/social services programs for refugee agency. Must be bilingual, with fluency in English and one or more Asian languages. Experience preferred.

Successful candidate will manage a variety of health programs serving predominantly Asian clientele. (Primary client languages are Chinese, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese.) Responsibilities will include recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, supervising, and evaluating staff; writing and assisting with writing grants; preparing budgets, financial reports and bills; ensuring compliance with documentation/reporting requirements; meeting with funders; etc.

Contact/send resume to: Barbara Levin, M.Ed., SEAMAAC, 4601 Market St. Philadelphia, PA 19139, Phone: 215 476-9640, Fax: 471-8029, e-mail BHLevin@aol.com

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Listing of Available Scholarships

Visit the following websites for scholarship listings.

http://www2.faa.gov/education/rlib/grant.htm

http://www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/3specpop.htm

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Tips

New OMB Requirement – DUNS Number for all applicants

In order to improve the statistical reporting of federal grants and cooperative agreements, the Office of Management and Budget has directed federal agencies to require all applicants to provide a Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number when applying for Federal grants or cooperative agreements on or after October 1, 2003.  The DUNS number will be required whether an applicant is submitting a paper or an electronic application, and whether an applicant is applying for a new award or renewal of a current award.  While the current directive does not cover non-competing continuations, Phase II of the project, which begins in FY 2004, will cover these continuations.  Therefore, we encourage all grantees and potential applicants to obtain a DUNS number.

Use of the DUNS number government-wide will provide a cost-effective means to identify entities receiving those awards and their business relationships.  The identifier will be used for tracking purposes, and to validate address and point of contact information.  The DUNS number already is in use by the federal government to identify entities receiving federal contracts, and by some agencies in their grant and cooperative agreement processes.

Organizations should verify that they have a DUNS number or take the steps needed to obtain one as soon as possible if there is a possibility that they will be applying for Federal grants or cooperative agreements on or after October 1, 2003.  Organizations can receive a DUNS number at no cost by calling the dedicated toll-free DUNS Number request line at 1-866-705-5711.  Individuals who would personally receive a grant or cooperative agreement award from the federal government apart from any business or non-profit organization they may operate, and foreign entities are exempt from this requirement.

If your organization does not have a DUNS number, and you anticipate that your organization will apply for a grant or cooperative agreement on or after October 1, 2003, you should take steps to obtain a DUNS number in advance of the application deadline.  If your organization does not have a DUNS number, you may not be able to apply for Federal grants or cooperative agreements after that time.  Future potential applicants should also consider requesting a DUNS number now if there is any intention of applying for a federal grant in the future.

Further information can be found in the Federal Register, located at:  (http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-16356.pdf).

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Final Regulations Released for Faith-Based SAMHSA Funding

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published the final regulations (http://www.dhhs.gov/fbci/) for faith-based organizations interested in applying for grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly reported Oct. 6.

Under the new regulations, "Neither the Federal government nor a State or local government receiving funds under these programs shall discriminate against an organization that is, or applies to be, a program participant on the basis of religion or the organization's religious character or affiliation," according to the SAMHSA regulations.

The regulations also set parameters for faith-based groups to follow when offering services. For example, the rules prohibit a religious organization receiving SAMHSA funding to offer an addiction-prevention class at the same time or location as a Bible study or other religious activity.

The regulations also allow recipients of services to request an alternative provider if they object to the religious character of a SAMHSA-funded group.

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News

November 1, 2003

More Vietnamese Immigrants Reaching End of Welfare Benefits

By Scott Martelle and Mai Tran, Times Staff Writers

Locked in low-wage, dead-end jobs and socially segregated by limited English skills, working-class Vietnamese Americans in the state's welfare-to-work program are burning through their benefits much faster than other recipients, according to policy analysts, social workers and activists.

The effects have been most pronounced in Orange County's Little Saigon and in Santa Clara County, two of the nation's largest Vietnamese American communities, where thousands of immigrant working poor hold jobs that don't pay enough for them to keep up with California's cost of living.

In Orange County, about 80% of adults enrolled in the CalWorks program who had exhausted their benefits by September were Vietnamese, although they make up about 5% of the population, officials said.

Most were two-parent families with several children and a single low-wage earner. And tellingly, most did not take advantage of CalWorks training and life-skills programs designed to augment the cash assistance, officials said.

Los Angeles County, where Vietnamese Americans make up only 1% of the population, also reported that a disproportionately high number of those timing out were Vietnamese Americans — about 12%, said Henry Felder, chief of research evaluation and quality assurance for the county Department of Public Social Services.

Contrary to public perceptions of welfare cheats scamming a free ride, those timed out of the system played by the rules, said Duc Nguyen, a director of Hope Community of Santa Ana.

"People think that people on welfare are lazy," said Nguyen, whose agency helps Vietnamese clients find social programs. "That's not the case. A lot of them are just so helpless. They don't have what it takes to find a [better] job."

California's Vietnamese community includes two economically disparate groups. At the end of the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of educated and wealthy Vietnamese escaped the Communist regime and set up profitable expatriate communities in the U.S. — particular in Westminster.

A second wave of poor and relatively uneducated immigrants began to arrive in the late 1970s and 1980s, seeking a better economic future. Most of the working poor are among this group.

Statewide, about 15,800 recipients ran out of benefits in January, and about 3,000 recipients have been dropped from the rolls each month since, said Andrew Roth, spokesman for the state Department of Social Services.

Losing eligibility means a sharp drop in income for families — even those with children still receiving benefits — who can least afford it. Some have lost as much as $300 a month — a large sum for families living on a small budget — and are forced to take on a second or third job, social workers said.

"There's an overall feeling of anxiety and worry about their future," Nguyen said. "Right now, we just don't know what to do to help them."

The welfare time limits began in 1998 when California responded to federal welfare reforms by establishing the CalWorks program. It requires able adults who receive cash grants to work to maintain their eligibility, and limits recipients to five years of benefits over their lifetime.

The intent was to end long-term welfare support for individuals and reconfigure the system to act as a bridge, helping people in need to rebuild their lives. As part of that, CalWorks established job-training and life-skills programs. Time limits were waived for the elderly, people with disabilities, children and victims of domestic abuse.

For many families who've run out of benefits, being trapped in poverty is a point of humiliation; many who have lost their benefits declined to describe their predicament.

"Part of it is embarrassment," said Peter Daniels, program coordinator for the Employment Services division of Catholic Charities of Orange County. "It's not a real proud thing for them to be discussing their problems."

One former recipient whose benefits ended at the beginning of the year said she has struggled to break free of poverty. Now she is resigned to it — but hoping to position her children for a better life.

"I'm stuck and it's frustrating," said Thao Nguyen, 35, of Westminster, a unemployed single mother of three children, ages 10, 9 and 5. "I don't know what my future will be. I can't afford to leave my children and work and I don't have the skills I need to make a better living."

Nguyen, whose mother was Vietnamese and whose absent father was an U.S. soldier, was raised in poverty in Vietnam and never attended school. Scorned in Vietnam for being of mixed race, she left in 1991 under a program allowing Vietnamese children of American soldiers to enter the United States.

Nguyen married after immigrating, but her husband — and the father of her three children — left her about five years ago, she said. They are in the process of divorcing, she said.

While in CalWorks, Nguyen received up to $300 a month in cash plus child-care benefits that freed her up to work. She made $6.75 an hour packaging, sealing and labeling cookies at a small Westminster bakery, but lost the job in May 2002 after staying home for a month to care for her 5-year-old daughter, whose leg was broken when she was hit by a car.

Nguyen and her children live in a publicly funded two-bedroom apartment in a working-class neighborhood across the San Diego Freeway from the Westminster Mall. They survive on food stamps and $400 a month in state benefits for the children, for which they are eligible until they turn 18 or graduate high school — unless the mother's financial fortunes turn around.

"I just can't buy anything and I have to be real frugal," Nguyen said, adding that she devotes her time to raising her children and making sure they keep up with school work "so they don't become like me."

With no job skills, illiterate in Vietnamese and unable to understand English, Nguyen relies on her 10-year-old to navigate the daily world.

"I have three children and no money for baby-sitting. I don't know English and I've never had an education," Nguyen said. "I was hoping to get help when I really need it most, but I was cut off from it instead."

About 92% of all recipients losing benefits this year had jobs, while the rest had either recently lost their jobs or were satisfying the work requirements through community service, according to Orange County Department of Social Services statistics.

"A high percentage are intact families with two parents, larger families [in which] the mother stays at home with the children," said Pamela Boozan, who directs the Orange County CalWorks program. Most speak only Vietnamese and work in jobs without room for career advancement, such as in garment factories.

"They tend to stay in the same job for a long period of time," Boozan said. "Low wages combined with larger families, they tend to stay on aid longer and now are timing out."

In Santa Clara County, 1,085 Vietnamese adults timed out through September, about two-thirds of the 1,625 who exhausted their benefits. Vietnamese make up about 6% of the county's overall population.

"These are long-term welfare recipients who have been working away trying to provide for their families, but due to inadequate language skills they are not climbing up that ladder of success," said Alette Lundeberg, who manages the CalWorks and refugee programs for Santa Clara County.

The lack of participation in CalWorks training programs consequently caused a greater impact on Vietnamese recipients. "In a sense they were telling case managers, 'Don't bother me, don't tell me about career changes or getting training,' "said Catholic Charities' Daniels. "And they didn't believe the five years would be implemented in the end. So after five years, they were the first to go off."

Cultural issues also came into play. Among Vietnamese immigrants — like many ethnic groups before them — adults concentrate on working while seeing the future as the province of their children; this can mean missing out on training opportunities that could improve their incomes.

"You find not only among the Vietnamese but also in other immigrant groups with big work ethics, the priority is family -- everybody gets a job and there's nothing too humble for you to do," Lundeberg said. "The work and the income is the No. 1 thing."

Training programs also failed to attract participants because many immigrants who lived under Vietnam's communist regime remain skeptical of government officials. Combined with ineffective outreach about the support programs, Daniels said, Vietnamese families were left behind.

"The worst part is this promise of the CalWorks system that all the training and the assessments … were never given to them because they didn't really access the services," Daniels said.

(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-viet1nov01,1,3505542.story)

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Oct. 31, 2003

Asians irked ballots aren't in Vietnamese

Leaders say county flouts federal rules

By ROSANNA RUIZ

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Harris County's failure to provide electronic ballots in Vietnamese is rankling local Asian leaders who complain that the county has failed to comply with the U.S. Justice Department's order last year.

Community leaders learned last month that Vietnamese would not be found on the county's electronic eSlate ballots in Tuesday's election.

"We're very disappointed the Vietnamese language is not on eSlate machines," said Rogene Gee Calvert, a member of county and city Vietnamese advisory panels.

The $25 million eSlate machines, which replaced the county's aging punch-card system, were first used last November and provided Spanish and English ballots. The county has been unable to get federal certification to add Vietnamese.

"If (the county) really wanted to do it, it's the kind of thing where you wouldn't have to push to do it," Calvert said.

Still, a county official insists the county is abiding by the law by providing Vietnamese translators, sample ballots in Vietnamese and informational voting materials at targeted polling places.

However, Philoan Tran, a board member for the Asian American Legal Center of Texas, said her group has encountered irregularities at polling sites where Vietnamese sample ballots were unavailable and interpreters were not proficient in the language.

"I don't think the county can solve the problems before Tuesday's election," Tran said.

In July 2002, the Justice Department ordered the county to provide ballots and election materials in Vietnamese. The growing Vietnamese population and requirements in the federal Voting Rights Act triggered the order. Harris is the only county in Texas with a Vietnamese population large enough to trigger the requirement.

According to the 2000 census, more than 55,000 people in the county identify themselves as Vietnamese, and the Justice Department says at least 10,000 are old enough to vote but not proficient in English. Three California counties also were included in the order: Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara.

Certification for the language upgrade to eSlate machines, which comes at no additional cost to the county, has been in the works since January, said David Beirne, public affairs director for County Clerk Beverly Kaufman.

Documents submitted to a federal testing agency in January did not meet revised standards. The procedural changes "had not been clearly communicated," said Bill Stotesbery, vice president for the eSlate vendor, Hart InterCivic. The agency is considering revised forms. Once federal approval is granted, the state's election division must also scrutinize the upgrade.

The Voting Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate in voting based on language. The Justice Department enforces that protection by lawsuits, sending observers to monitor elections and working with local jurisdictions to improve their minority-language election procedures.

Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, said he was aware of the county's certification efforts. He explained that the law allows the county to provide an alternative, like translators, if unable to provide a required language. But he declined to say whether the county would be investigated for its voting procedures.

Beirne said he is confident that the Justice Department will not take issue with the election measures.

"We've always been in constant contact with the Department of Justice, and we briefed them on what we're experiencing at the local level," Beirne said.

Beirne and Stotesbery offered assurances that the certification process will be secured in time for the March 2004 primary election.

Calvert, who is also Councilman Gordon Quan's chief of staff, has her doubts, saying the same promise was made before Tuesday's election. 

More Vietnamese voters, she said, would likely turn out if they knew they could easily vote in their language.

"They need to exercise their right to vote and not feel intimidated," Calvert said.

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November 4, 2003

President urged to renew APA Advisory Commission

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Honda (D – San Jose) along with executive board members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus sent a letter to President Bush urging him to renew Executive Order 13126.  Renewal of the Executive Order would re-establish the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (the Commission).

The letter calls on the Bush Administration to make issues affecting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities a priority. The Commission was originally established by President Clinton in 1999 to advise the President, through the Secretary of Health and Human Services, on matters affecting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

“Issues affecting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities must be made a priority in your Administration,” wrote Honda in the letter. “We are concerned that the lack of clear and adequate information from the Department of Health and Human Services on this matter may stem from the fact that Executive Order 13126 has lapsed. We urge you to renew the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders immediately, hire an Executive Director for the Commission, and ensure that the substantive work of the Commission is carried out.”

The letter is cosigned by Representatives David Wu, Mike Honda, Neil Abercrombie, Madeleine Bordallo, Robert Matsui, Ed Case, Robert C. Scott, Xavier Becerra, and Eni Faleomavaega.

On June 7, 2003, A Presidential Executive Order for the Commission expired. The Commission was originally established by President Clinton in 1999 in order to advise the President, through the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the three mandates of the Executive Order: to develop, monitor and coordinate federal efforts to improve Asian American and Pacific Islander participation in government programs; to foster research and data collection for Asian American and Pacific Islander populations and sub-populations; and to increase public and private sector and community involvement in improving the health and well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Honda added, “By allowing the Executive Order to lapse, the Administration has left the impression that these matters are not among your priorities. We understand that the Secretary of Health and Human Services is in the process of appointing a new Executive Director for the Commission.  While the critical position of Executive Director must be filled, the lack of an Executive Director for the Commission cannot be an impediment to the Commission’s existence and its substantive work, and should not be used as reason for delaying the renewal of the Executive Order.”

On September 24, 2003, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus wrote to Secretary Tommy Thompson seeking a response to several matters including:  progress in hiring a new Executive Director for the Commission, the status (such as any plans for publication) of the substantive work conducted by the recently expired (immediate past) Commission, and funding plans for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“We have been disappointed in the way the past Commission released information to the public.  Rather than speaking with one voice, past Commissioners have released individual statements to the press, sending mixed messages and creating confusion among our constituencies.  We would urge that a renewed Commission release authorized press statements from the Chair of the Commission only.  We would also encourage the Commission to work more closely with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.”

Honda said he has information of a proposal to house the Commission at the Department of Commerce, rather than the Department of Health and Human Services. The Asian Caucus does not believe this to be appropriate, especially without discussions, as the DHHS is able to track Asian American and Pacific Islanders and their participation in government wide programs in areas such as health, human services, education, housing, labor, transportation and economic and community development. The Commerce Department’s jurisdictional focus on the business needs of the community.

(http://www.aapress.com/webnov7/n-initiative.htm)

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November 5, 2003

Lawmakers: U.S. Spy Agencies Need More Diverse Look

By REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies must change their traditional Ivy League white male image if they are to gain ground in fighting terrorism and other threats around the world, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

``We can no longer expect an intelligence community that is mostly male and mostly white to be able to monitor and infiltrate suspicious organizations or terrorist groups,'' Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said at a hearing.

``We need spies that look like their targets, CIA officers who speak the dialects terrorists use, and FBI agents who can speak to Muslim women who might be intimidated by men,'' she said.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, one criticism repeatedly cited by intelligence experts is there are not enough CIA operatives, intelligence analysts, and linguists who are proficient in key languages, cultures and can physically blend into the Middle East and Asian regions.

``There is no question right now we do not have enough people with the language skills to do all of the tasks and jobs we have on a very high priority,'' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, said.

``There are gaps and we can fill those gaps if we can take the right steps to get those language capabilities and that cultural experience broadened,'' he said. ``Are we working toward it? yes. Are we getting there fast enough? no.''

The intelligence agencies said they are making an effort to recruit Americans of Chinese, Korean, Arab, and African descent, Hispanics and Native Americans.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a rise in patriotism and a weaker job market led to a ``significant increase'' in job applications at intelligence agencies, but the increase from minorities was ``less encouraging,'' said Rachel Stroud, deputy special assistant for community diversity management.

Spy agencies were focusing on languages that included Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Malay, Pashto, Persian-Dari, Persian-Farsi, Punjabi, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Urdu, and Vietnamese, said Jan Karcz, staff director of the analytic strategies group, which is an intelligence community position based at the CIA.

But a large applicant pool is required. For example the FBI says it must process 10 applicants to yield one that meets language proficiency and security standards, Karcz said.

The intelligence agencies are offering bonuses for people with sought-after languages, and the CIA is offering hiring bonuses that can go as high as a one-time payment of $35,000.

But even for an almost native linguist, it can take 18 months to understand the target, William Black, deputy National Security Agency director, said.

The NSA eavesdrops on electronic communications worldwide and employs linguists to translate and understand them. ``We must understand not only the words, but also the intentions behind the words,'' Black said.

The NSA hired about 1200 new employees in the year to Sept. 30, 2003, and about half were linguists, Black said.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat, said the intelligence agencies' focus on recruiting ``A students'' was also hampering diversity.

``I believe I can do what (CIA Director) George Tenet does and I was a C student,'' Hastings said. He later added: ``Everybody does not have to have more degrees than a thermometer to be a spy.''

(http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-security-intelligence.html)

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November 6, 2003

Anger at shooting persists
EVEN WITH S.J. OFFICER CLEARED IN DEATH, VIETNAMESE COMMUNITY REMAINS UPSET
By HongDao Nguyen
Mercury News

Arthur Bao won't go away.

He is a dad, a Vietnamese immigrant raised in the United States and a marketing manager for an air-conditioning company who skipped work Wednesday to join about 70 protesters outside San Jose City Hall for a gathering that has become familiar in its tenacity and frustration during the past 3 1/2 months.

``We're not going away,'' Bao said as speakers took the microphone to decry what they call the unjust death of a young Vietnamese mother, who was shot dead in her kitchen by a police officer who thought she was going to attack him.

San Jose's Vietnamese community is still angry and still united, Bao said, even after a grand jury last week declined to indict a San Jose police officer in the controversial shooting death of Bich Cau Thi Tran.

It was the fourth gathering since the July 13 shooting, but San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales said Wednesday that the justice system has worked in this case.

``As a community, it's time to move forward,'' Gonzales said, hours after the rally.

Responding to claims that the police are culturally insensitive, the mayor defended the department, calling it progressive in its efforts to work with San Jose's diverse communities. ``If we can see anything we can do, we will,'' Gonzales said.

Since the shooting, police have offered a Citizens Academy in Vietnamese and have met with Asian community leaders to discuss department policies and how the two groups could improve relations.

In an effort to show that investigators had nothing to hide, Santa Clara County's district attorney opened the grand jury investigation to the public and set up a translation room in the courtroom next door for people who speak Vietnamese.

But that hasn't been enough for many like Bao, who wants the officer who shot Tran to resign or be placed in a permanent desk job. While some who have gathered over the months to criticize the investigation and call for reforms are well-known activists who are quick to criticize police, many like Bao are new to the scene.

``At first I was hoping the system would take care of itself, but it didn't,'' said the 35-year-old, who attended his first rally Wednesday -- bringing his 6-month-old son. ``It left a lot of questions unanswered.''

The July shooting sparked a maelstrom from the Vietnamese community, which contended that officer Chad Marshall overreacted when he shot Tran, 25, who was waving a dao bao, an Asian vegetable peeler. Tran's family had said she was frustrated because she had locked herself out of her bedroom, but police contend she threatened the officer with the kitchen tool.

Wednesday, they hoisted signs that read ``Your badge is not a licens (sic) to kill,'' and ``Who kill our mom?'' next to a picture of Tran's two sons.

Protesters called for city leaders to be more vocal.

``None of those in leadership has done anything,'' said Hieu Tran, 49. ``There are lots in the Vietnamese community who are very concerned, and they've ignored it.''

But Gonzales said it was the grand jury's responsibility to weigh the facts -- not his.

Community leaders are drafting letters to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Gonzales, urging them to further examine the case.

Bao emphasized that the Vietnamese community is still angry, and those feelings wouldn't diminish, nor would the activism stop. For years, San Jose's 83,000 Vietnamese residents have been largely polarized over politics from their homeland, but the shooting changed that.

``For us,'' Bao said, ``this is a trigger event.''

Contact HongDao Nguyen at hnguyen@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5651.

(http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7196139.htm)

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November 8, 2003

For Kim, there is no second chance. Jailed at 17, he can never live in America again.
RANDALL RICHARD, AP National Writer

Even before he was born, Kim Ho Ma was in prison.

His first of many, in 1977, was in the killing fields of Cambodia. Kim's mother, eight months pregnant, was sentenced to dig holes in one of Pol Pot's work camps. The holes served no purpose other than to teach her humility before the guards decided it was time to kill her.

Kim's mother has always called Kim her miracle child -- the miracle being that when she collapsed from heat exhaustion, with Kim kicking inside her, and told her guards she had dug her last hole, they didn't kill her. They just walked away.

It was not long before Kim's mother walked away too, carrying her newborn through minefields to Thailand, and Kim's new prison -- a sprawling refugee camp for those who had managed to survive Pol Pot's genocidal terror. Kim was 7 when he and his mother finally passed through the camp's barbed wire gate for his voyage to the United States.

In America, he found himself in other prisons, both literal and figurative. Now he is back where he started, banished to one of the world's poorest countries -- one he does not even remember.

Kim, now 26, was shipped to Cambodia under a 1996 federal law that mandates deportation for all non-citizens who have ever been sentenced to a year in prison. His case exemplifies the moral questions about that law that are being debated in immigrant communities across America, among members of Congress, even among immigration officials who enforce it.

Is it fair for someone to serve a prison sentence for his crime and then receive what amounts to a second sentence -- lifetime banishment to a poor, undeveloped country?

Is it fair to impose this sentence equally on all so-called "criminal aliens" without regard to the seriousness of their offenses?

Is it fair to impose this sentence for a single mistake, with no opportunity for a second chance?

The debate is usually framed by extremes.

One side points to the likes of Angel Maturino Resendez, a Mexican-born serial killer who murdered 14 people along the freight train lines he rode from coast to coast.

The other side points to people like Mateo Salgado, who was deported to Mexico for a drunken-driving conviction and who died of heat exhaustion in an abandoned trailer in Texas last May while trying to sneak back home to his seven children.

Kim's case, like that of many of the 500,000 non-citizens already deported under the law, lies between the extremes. He is far from a hardened criminal, but his crime was a serious one.

This is Kim's story. It is also the story of the people who love him, including his mother, Nang Vong, who may never see her miracle child again.

***

In America, Kim's first home was a housing project in Seattle where he and other Cambodian refugees had the bad luck of showing up in the middle of a new war -- one between established black gangs and the Hispanic gangs that were migrating to Seattle from California.

Kim and his friends were just small enough and different enough to become a tempting diversion in that war, with both sides taking turns taunting them or beating them up for sport. Kim never wanted to trouble his mother with his daily torment. Her nightmares already were bad enough, and she was too preoccupied working two minimum wage jobs to notice. Neither did she understand what it meant when Kim and his Cambodian friends started wearing baggy pants and bandanas.

At home, Kim and his new buddies in the Local Asian Boys gang were deferential toward their elders; on the streets, they grew tough and uncompromising, determined never to be pushed around again.

"Gangster life was a chance to build status," he later wrote. "Most of us got mocked for being different, taunted for being poor, and battered for being foreign. We saw the gang as a congregation for strength and unity."

At 17, Kim was sent to an adult prison, the Seattle House of Correction. He and two of his friends were convicted of manslaughter for ambushing a member of a rival gang, the Oriental Lazy Boys, shooting him to death in a Seattle parking lot. Kim, who had no previous police record, was sentenced to 33 months.

The day he completed serving his sentence, he was transferred to another prison, an immigration service detention center.

As a convicted felon, Kim was subject to mandatory deportation under the 1996 law. However, in 1999, Cambodia was refusing to accept criminal deportees from the United States.

When Kim asked how long he would be held in the detention center, the answer was devastating: Unless the Cambodian government agreed to accept him, he would remain there the rest of his life.

Kim was not the only "lifer." Hundreds of other Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese were being held in indefinite detention because they had been ordered deported to countries that would not accept them.

It was about that time that Jay Stansell, a federal public defender in Seattle, first met Kim. He was bright, Stansell recalled, but angry, and had started writing legal briefs on his own, challenging his indefinite detention.

"It seemed the government of the United States had charged me with a new crime -- being born in a different country -- and that the sentence was life," Kim wrote to Stansell.

With the lawyer at his side, Kim won a class action suit against the Justice Department in 1999, a federal court ruling that he and others like him could not be held indefinitely and must be released while awaiting deportation.

Outside prison, Kim blossomed, Stansell said. The young man was eloquent in disavowing the gangster lifestyle, sought forgiveness for the heartache he had caused his parents and won the admiration of his old probation officer. He even ended up coaching the Little League baseball team on which Stansell's 10 year-old son, Adam, pitches.

"He'd show up at all hours with baskets of exotic fruit from the local Cambodian market," Stansell said. Often he'd come by to play catch with Stansell's two sons.

In March of 2002, after the United States threatened to deny visas to Cambodian officials, that country finally agreed to accept Kim and several dozen others, the first of an estimated 1,400 Cambodian immigrants marked for criminal deportation. Last fall, Kim was ordered to turn himself in to immigration officials.

The day he did so, Stansell said, the young man dropped by his home to bring Adam a baseball bat. "It was kind of poetic," he said, "because it was the bat we won the championship with."

Stansell and his wife, Dori, felt that they were losing a child and that their sons, Adam and 6-year-old Toby, were losing a devoted big brother.

It was far worse for Kim's mother, of course. On the long march to Thailand, she had refused to leave him for dead in a ditch with other starving Cambodian children. Now, because of a law she could not comprehend, her miracle child was being taken away.

***

"I don't know of any congressman who would have the courage to walk up to Kim Ho Ma's mother and say, 'We think it's justified to . . . take him away from you for the rest of your life," Stansell said.

"That's the central injustice of this law. You're ripping families apart," he said. "You're taking children away. You're taking bread winners away. A lot of these guys have children of their own. It's going to mean welfare. It's going to mean desperation. It's going to mean mental illness. It's going to mean suicide and poverty and a new generation of kids who are going to have troubles."

Some social workers in the Salvadoran, Jamaican, Colombian, Dominican and Mexican communities speak in terms of the "ripple effect" of criminal deportations. But "tidal wave," is more like it, Stansell said.

In cases too many to count, say immigrant rights advocates, families are going into debt, sometimes mortgaging their homes, in an almost always futile attempt to keep their loved ones from being deported. And once a child or spouse does get deported, parents or spouses left behind often work two, sometimes three, jobs to send money to a new dependent overseas.

Most wrenching of all is the heartache when a deportee finally does come home -- in a body bag or casket, the only legal option for returning to the United States after a criminal deportation. The countries that take in the criminal deportees don't keep count, but advocates for them and their families say they fear the number of suicides is large.

Of the 500 criminal aliens sent to the Azores from New Bedford and Fall River, Mass., for example, there have been 11 suicides in the past two years, said Helena Marques, who formed a support group for deportees' families. Some just gave up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she said, when it became clear there was little sentiment in Congress for limiting criminal deportations.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who has led congressional effort to amend the 1996 law, traveled to the Azores in June to break the news to deportees himself. "I told them it's a terrible law -- that I wished I could change it -- but because of September 11th I've lost the support I needed to do that."

People like Frank and Stansell point out that thousands have been deported for possession of small quantities of drugs, for petty theft, or, like Mateo Salgado, even for drunken driving.

If nothing else, Stansell said, Congress should allow immigration judges to waive deportation when the merits of a case call for it. America, Stansell said, deserves a system that allows people like Kim Ho Ma to ask for forgiveness.

Officially, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes no position, saying its job is to enforce the law, not pass judgment on it. But privately, some bureau officials have expressed concerns about its fairness.

In a May 12, 2000, internal memo apparently intended for its field agents, the bureau's Boston regional office said many people convicted of relatively minor crimes "have been caught up in the wide net cast by the 1996 law."

"These people have paid their debt to society," the memo said. "They do not pose a danger to their communities, and many have made substantial contributions to our country."

The agency "is strongly committed to enforcing the law," the memo said, but it added: "Justice, however, is more than words in a statute or deportation order. It is doing what is right and fair for each and every person."

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, one of the primary authors of the 1996 law, takes strong issue with such sentiments.

"Some at the INS claim that the law is harsh or inflexible," he said at a 1999 congressional hearing responding to complaints about deportations for crimes such as drunken driving. "Some alleged that drunk driving is not a serious crime. Then one of the suspects drove drunk again and killed a man just before the new year, leaving behind a wife and children."

"Make no mistake," Smith said. "In 1996, Congress intended that all non-citizens who committed serious crimes should be deported. We should not give criminals who are not U.S. citizens more opportunities to further terrorize our communities."

Patrick J. Buchanan, conservative commentator and former presidential candidate, said he wouldn't want anybody sent back to persecution and death, "say, if Pol Pot were still running Cambodia." However, he said, if someone gets a one-year sentence even for a relatively minor crime like shoplifting, "I think he ought to go back."

"I realize obviously hardships occur in these things, but the law has got to come down on the side of protecting the American people from foreign folks who we invite into this country and then they commit crimes against Americans," he said. "It's not we who are responsible for the problems his family has. It is he who is responsible."

Former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who helped write the bill in the House, now says he thinks some of the provisions are overly harsh. His original bill, which he preferred, still gave judges discretion in some cases, but the final version made deportations virtually automatic.

The law also has some support in immigrant communities, where many fear gang members and feel criminal aliens bring shame on their communities. It's fine to feel compassion for the deportees, said Yeh Ling-Ling, an immigrant and executive director of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, a group that supports tighter immigration laws. "But how about their potential victims?"

Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization that advocates tighter immigration restrictions, says the law is fair and that deportation should not be regarded as punishment.

"They are being liberated back to their own jurisdiction," he said. "To the country where they were born, where they are citizens, where they have a right to get jobs and buy houses and own property and become multimillionaires."

***

In February, Stansell and his family visited Kim in a rural Cambodian town several hours from the capital city of Phnom Penh. It was not until he saw Kim there that he really understood what deportation is all about, Stansell said.

"For Kim, the permanence of it all has finally set in," he said. "Initially, it was like 'Wow. This is a beautiful place.' For the first time in their lives they are free of racism, they are not being stopped for driving with brown skin, and they're among people of amazing kindness.

"But then they settle in. They realize they have new bars around them," he said. "They've been sentenced to the Third World for the rest of their life."

Stansell said he found Kim living with distant relatives, looking for work, studying the Khmer language and trying to understand what for him is a foreign culture.

For Toby and Adam, Stansell said, the trip to Cambodia and their reunion with Kim was bittersweet and intense. There was the excitement of traveling to an exotic land, the joyous reunion with Kim and the pain and confusion of having to leave him behind.

Adam, especially, took it hard, Stansell said. "He cried and cried and kept talking about how it just wasn't fair."

Stansell said he tried to comfort his 11-year-old son, to reassure him that they will return to Cambodia often. Kim may be on the other side of the earth, he told Adam, but he is still part of our family.

Both his sons learned a lot in those two weeks about rules and laws, Stansell said. It was then, he said, in a rural town in Cambodia, that Adam decided what he needs to do when he grows up. He will work to change the law so that Kim Ho Ma can one day come home.

©2003 Associated Press

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/11/08/national1219EST0499.DTL)

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November 9, 2003

Winners Tip Hats to Immigrants
Fairfax Democrats Grateful for Support in Winning Campaigns

By Lisa Rein and David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writers

One by one, the Democratic victors in Fairfax County took the stage on election night to thank the immigrant communities that helped them. "I'd like to thank the Korean American community of central Fairfax," Del. J. Chapman Petersen told the crowd as he celebrated election to a second term. "I love Korean people!" Then he mentioned his Vietnamese American supporters.

Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins cited the diversity of her constituency in the Hunter Mill District that reelected her. And when county board Chairman-elect Gerald E. Connolly took the microphone to the crowd's cheers at the Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church, he thanked newcomers from Asia and the Middle East.

As new arrivals continue to settle in Fairfax, they are emerging as a small but growing force in local politics -- and more candidates are wooing them. Last week's election was a high-water mark of sorts, candidates and civic leaders say. More immigrants ran for office in Northern Virginia this season than at any time in recent memory, stirring strong interest in their campaigns. And newcomers were integral to the winning strategies of several county board hopefuls who used phone banks, radio and television spots, direct mail, ethnic newspapers and candidate debates to court immigrants.

"We reached out very aggressively," said Connolly, who made a last-minute push for Hispanic votes and credits Latinos, Koreans Vietnamese and other immigrants for widening his victory margin over Republican Mychele B. Brickner, who got 44 percent of the vote to Connolly's 53 percent. "A few thousand votes here and there can make a difference in a close race."

Republicans Brickner and H.V. "Buzz" Hawley Jr., who lost in the Mason District, also made it a point to attend ethnic celebrations, where they made sure they were visible to newcomers, introducing themselves and working the crowds.

One in three Fairfax County residents lives in a home where a foreign language is spoken, according to the U.S. Census, but it's difficult to know how many foreign-born voters went to the polls last week in the absence of exit polls or other survey data. The League of Korean Americans USA sponsored a drive in Fairfax to persuade members of that community to register to vote, as did Latino organizations.

Immigrant activists and candidates said their outreach to ethnic communities exceeded efforts in previous elections.

"The information [about the election] was out there," said Jeff Ahn, president of the Korean-American Drycleaners Association of Greater Washington, which donated $200 to Brickner and $1,000 to Connolly. "The community is more and more aware of getting involved in local politics. In Fairfax County, Koreans are putting down roots. They are buying homes. Their children are going to school."

With two Koreans running for office -- Ilryong Moon successfully for an at large School Board seat and Young Duek Ahn (no relation to Jeff Ahn) losing a bid for supervisor in the Mason District -- the community became active in fundraising and campaigning for those candidates and other office-seekers.

"I think that more Korean people paid attention to this year's election than ever before because you had Korean American candidates," said Kim Miller, president of the League of Korean Americans USA. "Korean newspapers covered their races, Koreans were holding fundraisers for them, and all of that encouraged Korean Americans to vote."

Many immigrant groups are silent in local politics until an issue awakens them, civic leaders say. For the Koreans, who dominate the region's dry cleaning industry, that issue was a competitive threat two years ago from the discounter DryClean Depot (now known as Zips Dry Cleaners) which was putting Korean shops out of business. Led by Connolly, the Board of Supervisors took up the matter, responding with legislation to restrict large discount dry cleaners from opening in residential and commercial areas.

"Gerry Connolly helped us resolve that controversy," said Ron Kim, a former association leader and owner of Centreville Brite dry cleaners. He gave Connolly $500.

Arab and Muslim groups become more invested in local elections and politics after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and passage of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law that has been criticized by civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers. Iranian Americans, for example, formed a political action committee in the summer to have a voice in the fall campaigns in Northern Virginia and pressed candidates for their stand on homeland security issues.

Hispanic leaders say they were motivated by legislation approved by the General Assembly this year prohibiting undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses and a law barring the same group from receiving state-resident tuition rates at Virginia's public colleges and universities.

Those laws prompted Rick Gonzalez, a Latino immigrant, to launch a bit to take on Sen. James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. (R-Fairfax), chief sponsor of the driver's license bill, in the 39th District. Gonzalez lost in a Democratic primary.

Democrat Penelope A. Gross credited newcomers in the diverse Mason District for helping reelect her to a third term. She spent $10,000 on outreach efforts that included phone banks in Korean and Spanish and two mailings in Spanish to Latino voters. She said the support drew on alliances built over eight years.

"All of our outreach really began to pay off," Gross said. "You have the build the relationships first. And the immigrants are finally feeling confident about the political process."

Korean organizations and individuals were among the biggest campaign donors among immigrant groups this season, giving approximately $12,000 to Connolly and $8,500 to Brickner, campaign finance record show. Pakistanis and other immigrant businesses also gave generously to Brickner, through introductions from Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who backed her campaign.

But while many candidates are just starting to reach out to immigrant communities, candidates from those communities spend their energy courting the non-immigrant vote.

"As an immigrant myself, I was glad to see the immigrants want to participate," said Moon, who sent mailings in Korean that appealed to the community's emphasis on education. "But the vast majority of who voted for me were not immigrants. I want to get votes from every sector."

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17344-2003Nov8.html)

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November 10, 2003

Activist helps give voice to Vietnamese
By Cecilia Kang
Mercury News

Quinn Tran calls herself an accidental refugee.

But even as she was stranded in the United States as an exchange student during the fall of Saigon, Tran remained connected to her native Vietnam by sending money, medicine and fabric to her family. Almost three decades later, her ties have only grown stronger.

The mother and high-tech entrepreneur is part of a new generation of leaders who are giving a voice to the insular Vietnamese-American community, which for years was seen but rarely heard.

``I'm part of a transitional generation that can go between both American and Vietnamese cultures,'' said Tran, 45, founder and president of start-up KnowledgeTek Software in Redwood City. ``We've always remained tied to our roots and we want to do something meaningful by giving back.''

Tran sits on the boards of the humanitarian aid group, VNHelp, which recently sent thousands of wheelchairs to Vietnam, and Viet Heritage Society, a cultural group trying to revive the Vietnamese garden project in Kelley Park.

But more than a leader for the 146,000 Vietnamese-Americans in Santa Clara County, Tran is also one of their spokeswomen. Eloquent and business savvy, Tran has become a liaison of sorts between Vietnamese-Americans and the larger Bay Area population.

She often represents Vietnamese-Americans at conferences, community meetings and on the boards of non-profit organizations. Tran was a panelist last year for the Women of Color Action Network forum, she's on the advisory board of the Knight Foundation, and she is a fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley.

Business mentor

She also mentors young Asian professionals -- particularly women -- and helps them meet the contacts and learn the networking skills needed to shine in corporate America.

``Most of us are newcomers, so it has taken a while to adapt in this society and make our voices heard,'' said Henry Le, another board member of Viet Heritage Society and co-founder of Lee Brothers Food Services. ``Quinn is a super-woman because she is involved in so many different groups and is helping connect the Vietnamese-Americans with the mainstream.''

As the community matures and the children of immigrants become professionals, a small but growing group of representatives have emerged, such as Franklin-McKinley School Board representative Madison Nguyen and San Jose City College Professor Mai Le Ho.

``There is a need for more Vietnamese-Americans who can easily cross borders and be effective communicators in any environment,'' Tran said. ``There are more people of my generation who are doing this, and this is clearly an opportunity for younger Vietnamese-Americans to do so as well.''

Tran was chosen in 2000 to accompany President Clinton on his historic visit to Vietnam. She is a American Leadership Program fellow, picked for the yearlong program along with Michael Chang, mayor of Cupertino, a venture capitalist and Cisco Systems executive. Tran sits on the board of Hidden Villa, a non-profit farm and wilderness preserve dedicated to multicultural and environmental programs. And she represents Vietnamese-Americans at forums on minority businesswomen and Asian arts and culture.

``Having Quinn is wonderful because she has the business skills, information technology skills and community contacts that we were looking for,'' said Karen Ross, chair of the board of trustees for Hidden Villa.

The youngest of 10 children, Tran began showing her penchant for leadership early on, according to her brother Hai Tran.

Wins competition

At 10, she left her parents in the central coastal city of Hue to study in Saigon. She quickly established herself as a stellar student, winning a high school national writing competition. She was chosen from among 3,000 candidates for the American Field Service exchange program.

And after the Vietnam War, she became a pillar for the family. One by one, Tran sponsored her parents and seven of her siblings to join her in California. A brother and sister came on their own as refugees.

``She has played a very, very important role in our family,'' said her brother Hai Tran, an optic technician in San Jose. ``Without her I don't think we could have come here and be all together.''

With her schedule packed with business and community activities, she's made it a priority to shuttle her 8-year-old daughter, Laura, between school and piano and Vietnamese-language lessons. Monday afternoons are reserved for just the two of them.

Laura summed up her thoughts about her mother with the miniature vanity license plate she gave Tran last year. The tag, which reads ``100% Woman'' is attached to Tran's cell phone.

``I gave it to her because she does a lot of stuff but still loves me and hugs me,'' Laura said.

Contact Cecilia Kang at ckang@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5066.

(http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7226017.htm)

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