Leaders From Immigrant, LGBTQIA+ and Reproductive Rights Organizations Urge Americans to Learn About Dangerous Policy Manifesto
Marginalized communities would be devastated by Project 2025, an ultra-conservative, ultra-authoritarian blueprint to remake the United States, developed by the Heritage Foundation. That was the critical and unified message from community leaders today, during a briefing about the conservative manifesto for reporters and editors from ethnic media outlets.
During the online event, leaders from AAPI Equity Alliance, Reproductive Freedom for All, Equality California and People’s Action explained the potential devastating effects of Project 2025 on immigrant and LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as on reproductive freedom – cautioning that the 900-page playbook is a continuation of efforts already underway to curtail civil rights and implement anti-immigrant policies.
To help voters educate themselves about Project 2025, one-page summaries by Stop AAPI Hate about Project 2025 are now available in English, as well as simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese at stopaapihate.org/2024/08/23/project-2025-analysis/. AAPI Equity Alliance is a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate with Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University.
”This document uses every opportunity to demonize immigrant communities,” said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, adding that Project 2025 would “fan the flames of racism, And we know that this isn’t in a vacuum because we’ve seen it most recently in Springfield, Ohio where false claims were made about Haitian immigrants saying that they had stolen pets and were eating them. That is not dissimilar from what our AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities have faced for decades.”
Calling Project 2025 “an existential threat” to AAPI communities, Kulkarni said the playbook would give broad authority to immigration agents at ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to target, arrest, detain, and deport immigrants.
“Immigrant agents could claim the right to enter our private homes, schools, places of business, and even houses of worship,” she said. “Let’s be clear about what this means. It means federal agents going door-to-door to search for undocumented immigrants without a warrant from a judge and arresting people who they suspect to be undocumented.”
Kulkarni added that Project 2025 would eliminate family-based immigration, which has been a key tool for families to be able to reunite in the United States. It would also downsize the H-1B Visa program, a majority of which go to Asian immigrants “who are among some of the brightest minds in science, technology and innovation.”
During the briefing, Sulma Arias, executive director of People’s Action, said it was important to educate voters about Project 2025. “The more that we talk about it and the more that we understand it, the better prepared we are to organize against it,” Arias said.
Referring to the mass border detention camps and family separation that happened in 2016, Arias said “what happened was already dehumanizing; what could happen is gonna be 10 times worse.”
She cautioned that Project 2025 would affect immigration, but also have broad implications for healthcare.
“We’re going to start seeing the privatization of Medicare, the increased cost of basic things that could mean life or death for our communities,” Arias said. “One specific goal of Project 2025 is that it gets rid of health care protections for people with preexisting conditions. It allows the government to monitor pregnancies to potentially prosecute people, even in cases of a miscarriage.”
Yvonne Gutierrez, chief strategy officer for Reproductive Freedom For All, reiterated the potential impacts of Project 2025 on reproductive rights and women’s healthcare.
“This 900-page, conservative policy agenda is a blueprint to decimate our fundamental rights and democracy,” Gutierrez said. “Their extensive mandate highlights various proposals that deal with, or would directly implicate, reproductive freedom, including abortion, medication abortion, emergency abortion care, contraception, and in vitro fertilization.”
Gutierrez said Project 2025 is not a thought exercise. “This is truly a blueprint,” she said. “We have to take Project 2025 as a very serious threat and need to make sure that folks are aware of what is possible.”
Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, also said Project 2025 would have a chilling effect on hard-won rights for LGBTQIA people, especially for transgender people.
“Project 2025 equates the act of being transgender or transgender ideology to pornography and declares that it should be outlawed,” Hoang said.
Hoang shared fears that Project 2025 would foment discrimination against LGBTQIA people.
“What they would do is reverse policies from the Biden administration and turn back time and allow folks to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace,” he said, adding that “year after year, hate crimes against LGBTQ people have increased.”
During the briefing, the community leaders urged reporters and editors to share the facts about Project 2025 to stem disinformation and misinformation about the playbook.
“Inform your readers,” about Project 2025, Kulkarni said. “So many of our community members still don’t know about it. It has not been described or discussed in ethnic media where so many of our community members get their news. So first and foremost, please write about it. It is critical that they are well informed when they go to the ballot box or when they mail in their ballot.”
Kulkarni urged everyone to oppose the policies, rhetoric and fear-mongering espoused within Project 2025.
“It is so critical that each and every one of us stand up, not only for ourselves, but for our friends and family members,” she said. “You may not be LGBTQ, but you can stand up for family members and friends. You may not be a woman or of reproductive age, but you can stand up for your sisters and daughters, and you may not be an immigrant or a person of color, but you can stand up. What we are trying to share today is that it is going to take all of us to fight this now and in the future.”
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Editor’s Note: To view a recording of this briefing, visit https://www.facebook.com/EthnicMediaServices/videos/879887320419333.
AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity) is a coalition of more than 40 community based organizations serving the diverse needs of the 1.6 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County and beyond. It is dedicated to improving the lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through civic engagement, capacity building, and policy advocacy.
