Campaigns

What We Focus On

Immigrant Justice

Housing Justice

End Double Punishment, Stop ICE Transfers

The HOME Act (AB 1306): introduced by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo in the CA state 2023 legislative session, would ensure that immigrant Californians who earn release from state prison under existing, broadly supported criminal justice reforms can come home instead of being cruelly transferred to ICE detention.

The VISION Act (AB 937), authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, was introduced in the CA state 2021 legislative session. The VISION Act would protect community members who have already been deemed eligible for release from being transferred by local jails and our state prison system to immigration detention.

VietRISE was a proud co-sponsor of this bill alongside the ICE out of CA coalition. We worked to pass a resolution in support of the VISION Act at the Santa Ana City Council and received unanimous support (7-0) from the Council, and co-authored an op-ed in the LA Times to argue why the bill must be passed by highlighting the experience of our community member, An Nguyen. The VISION Act fell short by 3 votes during the 2022 legislative session. However, it has reemerged in a revitalized form known as the HOME Act. Notably, 3 Orange County senators abstained from voting on the VISION Act.

Bring Human Rights Home

The Bring Human Rights Home campaign is a collaborative and long-term advocacy effort led by VietRISE, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, and supported by the OC Justice Fund. Our mission is to advance systems change advocacy and foster cross-cultural and multiracial solidarity among Vietnamese, Mexican, and Central Americancommunities in Orange County. 

Through a series of smaller campaigns and initiatives, our campaign sets forth three main objectives: holding local elected officials accountable for human rights violations, fostering a community that champions and safeguards the human rights of immigrants and refugees, and promoting cross-cultural and multiracial solidarity within immigrant communities while shifting attitudes toward systemic immigrant justice among the Vietnamese community.

Deportations are Anti-Asian Violence
In 2021, during the Biden Administration’s 100-day deportation moratorium, organizations dedicated to ending the deportation of Vietnamese immigrants and refugees were alarmed to learn that ICE had scheduled a deportation flight to Viet Nam on March 15 from Texas. As violence against Asian communities surged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the deportations of our Vietnamese community members were being led by ICE and the Biden Administration.

During the morning of March 15 VietRISE led a car caravan on Bolsa Avenue in Little Saigon to protest the Biden Administration and urge him to halt the flight; unfortunately it continued. Deporting Vietnamese immigrants and refugees not only rips individuals away from their loved ones, it upends whole families and communities. Deporting immigrants and refugees is a form of anti-Asian violence.

Santa Ana's Deportation Defense Fund
In 2021, in partnership with the OC Justice Fund, Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, and Immigrant Defenders, VietRISE successfully helped expand the city’s deportation defense fund from $200,000 to $300,000 a year and made the fund a permanent item in the city’s budget. The Deportation Defense Fund is a city-funded program that ensures a person who is experiencing detention and/or facing deportation has access to an attorney. The Fund is available to any Santa Ana resident or person who has ties to Santa Ana.

Our goal in the campaign was to ensure that these funds remain permanent and this legal service reaches Vietnamese and other Asian immigrants in the city that have not received or know of these funds and need access to an attorney. More to come soon on how you can access these services.

Keep the Heart of Little Saigon Housed

The heart of Little Saigon is its people.

This campaign collaborates with community partners to address the urgent issue of housing instability and displacement in Little Saigon, Orange County. The campaign aims to advance and preserve affordable housing, protect tenants’ rights, and prevent the displacement of long-time residents that form the heart and soul of the neighborhood. 

Rent Control in Santa Ana
In 2021, working in collaboration with Tenants United Santa Ana and many other community partners and residents, we successfully passed the rent stabilization ordinance and just cause evictions protections ordinance through the Santa Ana City Council. VietRISE mobilized alongside Vietnamese mobile home resident seniors and our advocacy efforts resulted in the final vote needed to get the ordinance passed. 

In 2022, working in collaboration with Tenants United Santa Ana, we successfully amended the rent stabilization and just cause evictions ordinance to establish a rent registry and rent board.

Repeal Costa-Hawkins
The repeal Costa-Hawkins 2018 campaign aimed to overturn the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a California state law that limited rent control measures and allowed for rent increases in certain circumstances. Through dedicated canvassing and phone banking efforts, VietRISE mobilized community members to raise awareness about the negative impacts of Costa-Hawkins on tenant rights and affordable housing. The campaign sought to remove restrictions on rent control and strengthen tenant protections to address the growing housing crisis in the state.

#KeepAnHome

Since 2020, the #KeepAnHome team – consisting of An Nguyen, his family, VietRISE, and attorneys at Asian Law Caucus – has been calling on CA Governor Gavin Newsom to #PardonAn.

Governor Newsom must #PardonAn to fight against family separation and prevent ICE from deporting An to Viet Nam, a country he has not known since he was a youth. A pardon from Governor Newsom would ensure An can remain with his family, community, and loved ones. Hundreds of support letters have been submitted by community members, activists, and community groups across the state and country in support of An’s pardon.

Take action with us to #KeepAnHome by viewing our toolkit.

OUR MISSION

VietRISE advances social justice and builds power with working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County. We build leadership and create systemic change through organizing, narrative change, cultural empowerment, and civic engagement.

VietRISE is fiscally sponsored by Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

CONTACT US

general@vietrise.org

(714) 589-5496

14351 Euclid St. #1M, Garden Grove, CA 92843