EMERGENCY EPISODE: Impact of ICE Raids in the Southeast Asian Communities w/Quyen Dinh
TW/CW: ICE Raid violence, imprisonment, and deportation
Recorded on 2/5/2026, 9:05 am
Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of SEARAC (The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center)joins me as a guest for this emergency episode regarding the current ICE raids happening in Minnesota and across the US. In Minneapolis-St Paul, ICE and CBP have been doubling down efforts to detain residents, including those with legal status, and have been under major scrutiny for the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The SE Asian communities, home to many Hmong, Lao, Cambodian, and Vietnamese residents, have faced threats from ICE and CBP agents, and the deportations among that particular group have escalated since the Trump 2.0 administration.
We talk about the challenges and uncertainty with SE Asians who are being detained and going through the deportation process. We bring up Parady La, a Cambodian man who died under ICE custody earlier this year, and how his family is still searching for answers as to why he was denied medical care before his death. Quyen shares insights into what SEARAC and other SE Asian community organizations are doing in response to the ICE raids and ways to help protect their communities.
Resources & Other Information:
* SEARAC’s website, FB.IG. BlueSky
* SEARAC resources for SEA refugees facing deportation page
* Mutual aid efforts:
* Minnesota
* AAPIs United in the Twin Cities
* Hmong American Partnership’s mutual aid efforts
* Other mutual aidfundraisers.
* In Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
* Know Your Rights materials in Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, or Vietnamese, or other Southeast Asian languages, you can visit MN8’s website. Click here for written resources or here for videos.
Get full access to Bánh Mì Bites at randykim.substack.com/subscribe
