Dear Governor Jeb Bush,
San Diego Asian Americans for Equality (SDAAFE) is a non-partisan Political Action Committee promoting active civic engagement in public affairs and Asian American interests. We have over 1700 members. Our community finds your recent remarks about “Anchor Babies” unwarranted, offensive and highly misleading. We would like to ask you to stop using Asians as a scapegoat in the important discussions on immigration policy.
The vast majority of Asian-Americans are law-abiding, hard-working, and lawful residents. Many of us have proudly lived in and contributed to this great country for generations. Surveys and studies show that only a small fraction, less than 8%, of all illegal immigrants in the US were from Asia. Birth-tourism, although legal and protected by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, may require further discussions.
Disturbingly, you chose to side-step the real discussion on immigration policy and wrongfully placed the blame on the Asian community. By doing so, you threw a misleading and derogatory smear at our community, with which you foster a negative impression and stereotype against our community. To us, that is beyond offensive. Another disturbing implication of your remarks is that by disparaging a law-abiding minority group, you are condoning illegal immigration and hurting the efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
Sniping the Asian American community with gratuitous comments runs counter to common American ideals, further diminishing your appeal to a broad segment of the population, thereby dimming Republican prospect in the next election. We, Asian Americans, demand an immediate apology from you. You can reach us at info@sdaafe.org
Sincerely,
San Diego Asian Americans for Equality