<\/p>\n
ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court after justices heard oral arguments on whether President Donald Trump can deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tom Brenner\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Neal Katyal, the attorney who argued against the Trump administration in the case Trump v. Hawaii, speaks to members of the media outside the Supreme Court, Wednesday, April 25, 2018, in Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
This courtroom sketch depicts Cecillia Wang, the American Civil Liberties Union legal director, standing center, making arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington, as President Donald Trump departs shortly after Wang began her presentation in defense of broad birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n
Dana Verkouteren\/AP<\/p>\n
Nearly 4 in 10 Houston-area Asian residents<\/a> reported that they, a friend or a family member had experienced discrimination in the past 12 months, according to a recent survey completed by Rice University\u2019s Kinder Institute for Urban Research<\/a>.\u00a0Nearly half of those who described their experiences<\/a>\u00a0cited insults and derogatory comments. Nearly one-quarter<\/a>\u00a0reported being treated differently or excluded.<\/p>\n This is Houston\u00a0\u2014 one of the most diverse cities in America\u00a0\u2014 and still, our Asian\u00a0American neighbors are being told to \u201cgo back to your country.\u201d Nearly five years after the pandemic-era wave of anti-Asian hate, the tide has not fully receded.<\/p>\n That is why we cannot stay silent about what happened recently on the national stage.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The month of May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month \u2014 a time when our communities across this nation, including here in Houston, celebrate our contributions to American life. As Houstonians who lead two national bar organizations representing the interests of the more than 80,000 AANHPI lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students throughout the country, we write to share why this Heritage Month is particularly critical in combating discrimination.<\/p>\n Last month, an episode of the \u201cSavage Nation\u201d podcast was virulently anti-Asian. A transcript of this podcast was shared by many, including a repost <\/a>by the president of the United States. While much of the attention focused on the podcaster\u2019s anti-Indian and anti-Chinese rhetoric\u00a0\u2014 including tired tropes of immigrants in the high-tech sector taking American jobs,<\/a>and the description of India and China as \u201chellholes\u201d and their people as \u201cnot like European Americans\u201d in terms of loyalty and assimilation \u2014 the podcast also took aim at the legal profession, the pending Supreme Court birthright citizenship case, Asian American attorneys and the rule of law.<\/p>\n The transcript described Cecilia Wang, the legal director of the ACLU\u00a0\u2014 an American born in the United States to parents from Taiwan\u00a0\u2014 as \u201ca Chinese American who looks to me like the classic ACLU attorney. Very smart, very evil, very devious,\u201d and calls her \u201cthe snake from the ACLU.\u201d It claimed she was attempting to \u201cturn us into a colony of China.\u201d\u00a0<\/a>All this because Wang argued on behalf of plaintiffs in the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court, litigation in which both of our organizations have filed legal briefs supporting the plaintiffs\u2019 claims.<\/p>\n Equally alarming was the invocation of a Shakespearean call for violence against lawyers. The line \u201cthe first thing we do, let\u2019s kill all the lawyers<\/a>,\u201d from \u201cHenry VI,\u201d was referenced, alongside the claim that \u201cthe country has been stolen from us by these effing lawyers.\u201d Whatever its literary origins, there is nothing literary about that statement in 2026. When directed at individuals and an entire profession, this language is dangerous. We, especially as leaders of bar organizations, condemn it unequivocally.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Instead, this Heritage Month, consider what our communities have built through the law. Wong Kim Ark\u2019s 1898 Supreme Court<\/a> case enshrined the promise of the 14th Amendment for all born on U.S. soil.\u00a0Bhagat Singh Thind<\/a> fought to become a naturalized citizen\u00a0\u2014 and was denied, despite serving the United States in uniform.<\/p>\n These cases, which are foundational to our immigration and civil rights jurisprudence, were argued in a time when most Asian Americans could not practice law. Today, AANHPI attorneys like Wang of the ACLU and Neal Katyal,\u00a0who recently won a major tariff case<\/a> before the Supreme Court, carry on that tradition\u00a0\u2014 profoundly shaping law on behalf of fellow Americans, not at the behest of any foreign power.<\/p>\n