As fear grows among immigrants, California groups lean on cultural ties to build trust

The deportation of a friend’s brother-in-law last summer convinced Nkauj Iab Yang she needed to take action. 

“Do I jump in neck deep and be a part of really trying to defend and keep our family members together?” Yang asked herself.

Ultimately, Yang decided to leave her work as a consultant and leadership coach, starting immigrant-serving organization Sac Defense in fall 2025. She aimed to respond to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement removals of Southeast Asians that she was seeing near Sacramento. But she then received requests from areas like Fresno, the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, revealing a greater need for culturally specific help than she’d realized.

The need has grown alongside a sharp rise in enforcement nationwide: ICE arrests of Asian immigrants increased by over four times from 2024 to 2025, according to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project. 

Increased fear has made it harder for many immigrant-serving organizations to help clients, multiple interviewees told VOICES, as individuals worry seeking aid could cause the government to target them. In light of this, Sac Defense and other Asian-serving organizations in California say cultural knowledge has been increasingly important to connecting with immigrants. 

California Asian communities have been particularly affected by ICE actions. ICE’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices — which oversee all of Hawaii and California except the area around San Diego — made up just 6.7% of overall ICE arrests, but a combined 18.2% of Asian ICE arrests.

“Every person who reaches out to me, I know it comes with a lot of courage for them to be like, ‘OK, I’m gonna make the call,’ or, ‘I’m gonna text her to ask for help,’” Yang said, “and so we’re really grateful that we’ve been able to really build trust with some of the impacted individuals and their families.”

ICE did not respond to emails requesting comment about how its enforcement actions have impacted Asian American communities.

Yang rebranded Sac Defense as Cal Defense at the end of 2025, expanding her services to California’s Central Valley. The organization helps families plan for possible deportation and accompanies individuals to ICE check-ins. For those with prior convictions that make them more vulnerable to deportation, Cal Defense helps them request relief actions such as pardons or resentencing.

Cal Defense’s outreach currently focuses on Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian immigrants, all of whom Yang said have faced increased removals after President Donald Trump returned to office. 

Vietnamese Americans were the third-largest group of Asian detainees in 2025 and Laotian Americans were the seventh-largest group, according to the Deportation Data Project.

“There’s a lot of feelings of betrayal from the government, because Southeast Asian refugees, we’re here because the U.S. was in our countries, raging war against our communities,” Yang said.

There has been a lack of groups serving Southeast Asians and refugee communities in the Central Valley, said Jaelyn Galasinao Sanidad, the membership and empowerment programs manager at Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities. The organization, also called EMAC, works with Southeast Asian immigrants in Stockton, California, who have prior convictions.

Sanidad said building trust with immigrants, in part, means creating a space with tailored resources. She said the organization provides translated know-your-rights cards, commonly known as red cards, and does outreach at Asian cultural events.

For EMAC, that also means creating a space that is specific to their experiences of being both previously incarcerated and Southeast Asian American. Sanidad said refugees can be particularly vulnerable to the school-to-prison pipeline, which can make them more vulnerable to deportation. 

She said even for Southeast Asians in Stockton who are not directly affected, they often know a family member who has experienced those struggles, which she said can create more understanding in spaces expressly for Southeast Asian Americans.

The fear from increased deportations and new restrictions on various immigrant statuses has also meant organizations have turned to smaller community- or faith-based groups to help people feel comfortable attending their events.

“We had to establish that relationship with someone connected to that community, so that we can get a good turnout. We can’t just go in there and say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this event,’ without being vetted by someone that they know,” said Amina Fields, senior managing attorney for the Immigrant Rights Center at the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles, speaking about informational events the group has held for immigrants.

Sanidad said EMAC invites Buddhist monks from a local temple to its meetings to offer a blessing — meant to bring in a familiar and culturally rooted element.

“When people hear their language or when they see something from their culture, it brings a sense of, ‘Oh, that reminds you of home,’ and then it may make them feel more safe with you,” Sanidad said.

Yang said word of mouth has been the main way that her organization connects with its Central Valley community.

Cal Defense is barely online: It does not have a website and has only just set up a Facebook page. Yang said that hasn’t necessarily worked against the group, which chose to use Facebook because that’s where many community members get their information.

“We don’t plan to be too public,” said Yang. “We just want to ensure that when we are public, there’s key information that are necessary for folks to access.”

For know-your-rights events, another major item for immigration organizations, ICE crackdowns have cut off the usual wide-ranging outreach approach despite advocates saying their importance has increased.

“We can’t even advertise because there’s a fear that ICE might see a flyer and show up to an immigration meeting,” said Andrew Ji, managing director for the immigration justice unit at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. “We know that the need is there, but basically bottled up in their own homes.”

Because of the increased fear, EMAC has also stopped publicizing its clients’ stories widely on social media, as it did before 2024. Instead, Sanidad said, it targets campaigns for pardons only toward politicians who can directly help.

Despite the changes brought about by increased ICE enforcement, Sanidad said EMAC is more well-staffed and experienced to help immigrants now than during the first Trump administration. Meanwhile, Yang has just hired the first part-time staff member to join Cal Defense.

Sanidad said the process of building relationships can be slow, but that gradual effort of coming back time and again is the core of her organization’s work.

“It takes time,” Sanidad said. “We always say, ‘We move at the speed of trust.’”