Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)

Advocacy

The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center’s (SEARAC) promotes left-of-center expansionist immigration policies to assist migrants and refugees coming from Southeast Asian countries. It has advocated in favor of adopting several pieces of legislation to change the U.S. immigration system, including the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, which would reduce the number of Southeast Asians subject to deportation at a time and the New Way Forward Act which would block deportation of any individual who has been living in the United States for at least five years. ^{4  5}

SEARAC has previously claimed that data used by media outlets and government agencies to discuss immigration conflates the status of Southeast Asian immigrants with immigrants from other Asian countries and therefore do not accurately reflect both positive and negative trends impacting the population. The agency has further alleged that such data “masks educational, health, and other disparities that are unique to Southeast Asian immigrants.” ⁶ SEARAC has worked with local nonprofits and advocacy groups such as the California Department of Public Health to develop new data that highlights specific Southeast Asian migration trends as well as how to push legislation at the state and federal level to help those communities.  ⁶

According to its website, SEARAC has advocated for health care being an essential right for all U.S citizens and those living within the United States, and that those within the state of California should have access to taxpayer- funded health programs like Medi-Cal and the Affordable Care Act “regardless of their immigration status or where they were born.” ⁷ It also supports programs like the Older Americans Act and increasing investment in mental health programs. ⁷

SEARAC has further claimed that educational policies have placed Southeast Asian populations with other migrant communities from the Asian continent, negatively affecting the former. SEARAC has also claimed the United States’ education system is built on “systemic racism [which] creates barriers to [Southeast Asian] students’ success.” ⁸ It advocates for adding curriculums which focus on Southeast Asian culture, increasing taxpayer funding invested into universities that focus on Southeast Asian students, and increasing taxpayer funding invested into refugee-education programs. ⁸

In 2024, the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) was one of over 190 advocacy groups and organizations to sign a letter directed to the Biden administration that called for then-President Joe Biden to close all immigration detention facilities, to end the expansion of all similar detention centers, and for all migrants within these detention centers to be released. The letter also criticized the incoming second Trump administration and called on then-President Biden to enact the requested policies before it took office and “followed through on his plans of mass deportation, separating families, and upending the lives of millions in the process.” ⁹

Partners

The Southeast Asia Research Action Center (SEARAC) has partnered with groups that also focus on Southeast Asian immigrants including the Southeast Asian American Collaborative, Southeast Asian American Action and Visibility in Education, and the Southeast Asian Deportation Defense Network. ³

SEARAC is partnered with California based groups such as Health4All, the Sacramento Immigration Rights Coalition, and ICE Out of California.  ³

SEARAC has also partnered with national coalitions including the Detention Watch Network, the Immigrant Justice Network, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. ³

In 2022, SEARAC was also a recipient of a grant from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. It was part of over 450 grants Scott donated at that time, totaling more than $3.8 billion. ¹⁰