From the Bookshelves: UndocuAsians: Lived Experiences and Social Movement Activism Across the Diaspora Edited by Kevin Escudero and Rachel Freeman-Wong

Kevin R. Johnson

17 Feb 2026 — 2 min read

UndocuAsians

Lived Experiences and Social Movement Activism Across the Diaspora

Edited by Kevin Escudero and Rachel Freeman-Wong

"UndocuAsians offers a timely contribution to immigration literature. Historically grounded and conceptually rich, the centerpieces are the revelatory stories of individuals who fight for a more humane system. It urges us toward a compassionate future and to rethink what it means to live as undocumented with dignity, resistance, and hope."

—Shelley S. Lee, author of A New History of Asian America

UndocuAsians tells the timely, compelling story of the contemporary US immigrant rights movement with a focus on Asian undocumented immigrant narratives. It does so by drawing on personal reflections and research articles by self-identified undocuAsian organizers and scholars from Asian immigrant backgrounds.

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UndocuAsians Publisher's Abstract

"Asian immigrants comprise over 10% of the national undocumented immigrant population and Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States today. Asian undocumented communities, alongside their Latinx and Black undocumented counterparts, have also emphasized the importance of their racial/ethnic identities alongside their immigrant legal status in their organizing. UndocuAsians tells the story of the contemporary US immigrant rights movement with a focus on Asian undocumented immigrant narratives drawing on personal reflections and research studies by self-identified undocuAsian organizers and scholars from Asian immigrant backgrounds. Topics discussed in the volume include activists’ navigation of racialized “illegality,” the importance of chosen and biological family, pathways in the pursuit of higher education, the role of faith communities in the lives of Asian undocumented immigrants, and healing. Combined, these essays provide a diverse portrait of the vibrant, powerful community of Asian undocumented immigrants today."

Immigration Article of the Day: Sanctuary and the Data State by Fatma Marouf & Huyen Pham

Sanctuary and the Data State by Fatma Marouf & Huyen Pham, Columbia Law Review, Vol. 126, Forthcoming 2026 Abstract Historically, sanctuary policies focused on protected physical space and limits on police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—rejecting detainer requests, restricting jail access, and declining formal collaboration agreements. But

In an anti-fraud measure, U.S. government freezes Microsoft, Adobe, Infosys lawful permanent resident applications

Reuters reports (and here) that the Trump administration has frozen some lawful permanent resident filings by Microsoft (MSFT.O), Adobe(ADBE.O) and major IT outsourcers and opened probes into nine top universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State, and UC

Human Rights Watch: "To Scare People": US Expulsions of Third-Country Nationals to Countries in Africa

From a press release from Human Rights Watch: US: Deportations to African Countries Not Their Own Denied Due Process; Some Returned to Danger in Home Countries * The United States has sent more than 500 people whom it cannot deport to their own countries, because of the danger they would face,

Immigration Article of the Day: Recalibrating the Plenary Power Doctrine After Trump v. Hawaii, Thuraissigiam, and Loper Bright by Abdul Aziz Meslat

Recalibrating the Plenary Power Doctrine After Trump v. Hawaii, Thuraissigiam, and Loper Bright by Abdul Aziz Meslat Abstract This Article reexamines the constitutional foundations and contemporary operation of the plenary power doctrine in U.S. immigration law. For more than a century, the doctrine has afforded Congress and the Executive