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Bay Area Latinx and Asian Community Groups Unite to Support Half Moon Bay Victims and Survivors
In the past few days, Bay Area Latinx and Asian community groups have come together to address the immediate and long-term needs of the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay on January 23rd. Through this solidarity, we have found strength and comfort. By working together, we are focused on identifying all the people who need immediate help, providing the community with culturally competent and in-language support, raising funds that go directly to victims, surviving families, and impacted community members, and helping people navigate government and legal processes that are often not built to serve immigrant and marginalized communities.
The group, including Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), Asian Law Caucus, Puente, Coastside Hope, Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS), Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Stop AAPI Hate shared a statement underscoring how community takes care of community:
“When many of us expected to rejoice and celebrate with friends and family for Lunar New Year, the horrific tragedies in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park have broken our hearts. We are 27 days into 2023 and there have been 41 mass shootings in the U.S - more than any year in history. We grieve for the victims, survivors, and their loved ones. We shouldn’t live this way. We don’t have to live like this. We yearn for a world where we all feel safe - safe to dance, safe to go to work, safe to walk down the street, safe to be ourselves, safe to live.
“For many of the communities we serve, including Asian and Latinx immigrants and refugees, the horrors of gun violence in the U.S. are continuing cycles of pain and harm rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, and misogyny - and compound the acute fears and trauma of the past few years. Decades of funding cuts have stripped our communities of livable wages, affordable and safe housing, robust public infrastructure, education, healthcare and trauma care, and many other essentials.
“Starting in the 19th century, the lowest-paid and most dangerous farm work was done mostly by Chinese, Japanese, Sikh, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants. In that same era, U.S. immigration policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act paved the way for institutional, anti-Asian racism that is now used to harm, incarcerate, and punish predominantly Latinx and Black immigrants.
"Today, farmworkers are among the most oppressed workforces in the U.S., regularly working without the wage and safety protections provided to nearly every other worker in the country. For generations, U.S. systems of immigration, labor, and capitalism have exploited a mostly immigrant workforce, benefiting from their unconscionable poverty, language and community isolation, and distrust of government agencies because of the harm that also comes from these interactions.
“In the past few days, while we mourn, we have found solace in community vigils and rapid response coalitions across the region. That solidarity - among Asian, Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, Arab, and Middle Eastern communities - is where we will find hope and love, and the community power to struggle for systemic change. It also grounds us in affirming that community cares for community, and that the solution to violence is not more violence, including by the hands of police or through criminalizing people.
“As community serving organizations, we must do our due diligence to ensure that those affected by this tragedy have the support they need to recover as best as possible. This includes material support, legal assistance, and empathy.
“We commit to addressing the immediate and long-term needs of the victims, survivors, and their families - and deepening and expanding our solidarity to create a safer, better world that honors their memories and our collective fights for safety, justice, and belonging.”
If you are able to help, please donate to verified funds to ensure Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park victims and surviving families are able to get support from the organizations they have the closest ties to and in the languages they use:
- Funds led by Half Moon Bay organizations, including Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS) and Coastside Hope
- Half Moon Bay Victims Fund hosted by Chinese Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, and other AAPI-serving organizations
- Farmworker Caravan
- Monterey Park Lunar New Year Victims Fund
You can also find resources for mental health support, legal support, and other community care services from AAPI Equity Alliance and Stop AAPI Hate. ALC has created FAQs about workers' legal rights after violence in the workplace in English, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and Spanish. The resource also includes lists of vetted organizations who are available to farmworkers for free confidential consultations on immigration and workers' rights issues.
Spanish speaking victims, survivors and their families can visit sirenimmigrantrights.org, call (408) 453-3003, and/or email [email protected] to schedule a free immigration services consultation.
Community members who use Asian languages, including Cantonese and Mandarin, can call the Asian Law Caucus at (415) 896-1701 for free legal consultation.
Bay Area Organizations In Support
Asian Health Services
Asian Law Alliance
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
AYPAL: Building API Community Power
Berkeley JACL
CAIR San Francisco Bay Area
Chinese Progressive Association
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ)
Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
La Raza Centro Legal
Lavender Phoenix
NAAAP San Francisco
NAAAP San Jose
OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates, East Bay Chapter
San Mateo OCA
South Bay Youth Changemakers
Local/State/National Organizations In Support
18 Million Rising
AAPI Victory Alliance
AAPI Equity Alliance
AAPIs for Civic Empowerment
AAPIs for Justice San Antonio, TX
Act To Change
American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA)
American Muslim Empowerment Network (AMEN)
APANO & APANO CUF
API Equality-LA
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF)
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)
Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition of WA
Asian Counseling and Referral Service
Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL)
Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative
Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC)
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities
Filipino Advocates for Justice
Filipino American Community Action Group
Four Directions Native Vote
Grassroots Asians Rising
Hmong Innovating Politics
Immigrants Rising
Japanese American Citizens League
Japanese American Citizens League, Florin-Sacramento Valley Chapter
Japanese American Citizens League, Seattle Chapter
Laotian American National Alliance
Latino Network
LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics)
Legacies of War
Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition
MomsRising
NAAAP
NaFFAA
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)
National CAPACD
The National Council of Asian of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA)
National Federation of Filipino American Associations
National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
The National Tongan American Society
New Breath Foundation
OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates
OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates: Orange County
OCA - Sacramento - Asian Pacific American Advocates
OneAmerica
Orange County Asian & Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA)
Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN)
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
The Sikh Coalition
South Asian Bar Association Of North America
South Asian Public Health Association
South Asian SOAR
South Bay People Power
Tsuru for Solidarity
UTOPIA WA