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On June 1, 2021, the APA Justice Task Force sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to express our deep concerns and offer our perspective and assistance to her office regarding the recent Washington Post report detailing misconduct by the Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) at the Department of Commerce (DOC), which was later confirmed by a statement issued by Senator Roger Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
A whistleblower letter submitted to the Office of Inspector General at DOC in August 2018 was included in the letter to Secretary Raimondo. We provided facts and evidence that Sherry Chen and Dr. Chunzai Wang are believed to be among those impacted by the reported abuse of non-existent authority and targeting of DOC Asian American employees. The alleged misconduct extends beyond ITMS. We respectfully request Secretary Raimondo to expand the scope of her ongoing review and commit to a comprehensive solution. APA Justice stands ready to provide additional information and assistance as she deems appropriate. Copies of the letter were sent to Senators Maria Cantwell and Roger Wicker, Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee respectively; Senator Tammy Duckworth, member of the same committee; Rep. Judy Chu, Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; Rep. Jamie Raskin, Chair, House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Erika Moritsugu, Deputy Assistant to the President and AAPI Senior Liaison, White House; and Jeremy Licht, Deputy General Counsel for Strategic Initiatives at DOC. | ||
DOC Abuses Non-Existent Authority and Targets Asian American Employees
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On May 24, 2021, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Committee), released a press statement and a fact sheet as a precursor to a Committee report detailing misconduct in the Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) at the Department of Commerce (DOC). They were released shortly after the Washington Post (WP) published a blockbuster article about a whole range of misconduct by ITMS, which included the targeting of Asian Americans.
According to the Committee, “the ITMS has mutated into a rogue, unaccountable police force without a clear mission.” In a separate letter last month to the new Commerce Secretary, Senator Wicker wrote that the ITMS unit may have “disproportionately targeted and investigated . . . individuals of Asian descent.” The Committee's investigation into alleged misconduct at DOC was started in early February 2021 after whistleblowers reported a variety of improper activities dating back to the mid-2000s involving abuse of authority, mismanagement, and reprisal against DOC employees. The preliminary findings show that the ITMS has engaged in a troubling variety of investigative activities without proper authorization.
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Sherry Chen - "Victim of A Gross Injustice"
Born in China and a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1997, Xiafen "Sherry" Chen was employed at the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio as a hydrologist. The National Weather Service is part of the Department of Commerce (DOC). During her 7- year tenure with the agency, Sherry developed a river flood forecast model that literally saved lives, including during the historic Mississippi River flood in 2011 for which she received a national award. On October 20, 2014, Sherry's life and career were turned upside down when six FBI agents arrested her dramatically at work. Unbeknownst to her, a colleague outrageously had reported Sherry as a potential security risk, describing her as a "U.S. citizen, but a Chinese national." She was interrogated for seven hours by ITMS in 2013 without knowledge that she was a target of investigation. With her arrest she faced criminal charges that carried a potential penalty of 25 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Underlying the baseless charges against Sherry was the implicit allegation that she had acted as a spy for the Chinese government, which was utterly false. In March 2015, a week before the criminal trial was scheduled to begin, the government announced it was dismissing all the charges. Yet DOC refused to allow her to return to work. In March 2016, DOC terminated her employment, based principally on the same spurious allegations leading to her wrongful arrest and prosecution. As a federal employee, Sherry challenged the termination by filing an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and in March 2017 her case was heard before Administrative Judge Michele Szary Schroeder. More than a year later, in April 2018, Judge Schroeder issued a ruling in Sherry's favor, ordering her immediate reinstatement. In her blistering, 130-page decision, the judge excoriated DOC for the deeply flawed investigations preceding both Sherry's arrest and her termination, including the fact that the agency buried exculpatory evidence. She further blasted the DOC decision-makers who "seemed more concerned about being right than doing the right thing" and who gave such illogical testimony that the judge "would not have been surprised if they rejected that 2 + 2 = 4." Ultimately, the judge agreed that, due to the failures of officials at multiple levels of the agency, Sherry was a "victim of a gross injustice." On January 18, 2019, Sherry Chen and her attorneys Michele Young and Peter Toren filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the malicious prosecution and false arrest of Sherry Chen in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. On September 23, 2019, Sherry Chen and her legal team amended the complaint to include violations of constitutional rights. Since Sherry's arrest and termination, members of Congress have called attention to her case, including this letter by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to the DOC Inspector General on May 23, 2018 which tragically is but one example of the federal government's pattern of ethnic profiling against Chinese American scientists. DOC ignored these concerns and, instead of complying with Judge Schroeder's decision, filed an appeal, which - due to backlog of thousands of cases - is now languishing before the MSPB in Washington. Sherry has suffered tremendously for more than six years. The injustice she faced started nine years ago. Her long nightmare must come to an end. More about the Sherry Chen story are available here and at the Sherry Chen Legal Defense Fund.  Dr. Chunzai Wang 王春在
Dr. Chunzai Wang is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China and a former research oceanographer in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He received the NOAA Research Scientist of the Year award in 2012 and 2013.
After interrogations by ITMS, Dr. Wang was indicted and accused of fraudulent claims and illegal supplement of his federal salary on June 29, 2017. The total amount was about $2,000 over a three-year period to help students there on research involving climate change. The presiding judge criticized the government for its overreach in prosecuting Dr. Wang, but he was forced to leave federal employment. Read more about the Chunzai Wang story: https://bit.ly/3ukWfHF |
Speak Up Against Racial Profiling
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Professor Xiaoxing Xi, 2020 Andrei Sakharov Prize recipient and physics professor of Temple University, speaks about his ordeal as a racial profiling victim. "Don’t think this can't happen to you... The right question to ask is whether the entire group of Chinese scientists should be singled out for targeting and put under the suspicion as 'non-traditional collectors' for China. That is racial profiling. That is wrong. We should all speak up against it." (28:57)
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Asian Pacific American Justice Task Force
Within two weeks after the New York Times reported the dismissal of the criminal case against Sherry Chen, an award-winning hydrologist at the National Weather Service, a press conference was held on Capitol Hill in May 2015. On the same day, Professor Xiaoxing Xi, Acting Chair of the Physics Department at the Temple University, was arrested and also accused of espionage-related charges.
During the press conference, community organizations expressed their concerns of apparent racial profiling in the Sherry Chen case. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) announced that 22 CAPAC members signed a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting an investigation of the Sherry Chen case and a review of the policy, program and pattern or practice of using race or other civil rights classifications that target federal employees.
The pattern of targeting innocent Chinese American scientists was further confirmed by the dismissal of Professor Xi’s case in September 2015. CAPAC Chair Judy Chu called for a regular medium and platform to facilitate more timely and stronger communications to understand and respond to the growing pattern and concerns. A group of volunteers was formed to serve this purpose in the Fall of 2015. This APA Justice website is a product of the group's activities to provide information and facilitate connections and discussions within and beyond the community.
During the press conference, community organizations expressed their concerns of apparent racial profiling in the Sherry Chen case. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) announced that 22 CAPAC members signed a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting an investigation of the Sherry Chen case and a review of the policy, program and pattern or practice of using race or other civil rights classifications that target federal employees.
The pattern of targeting innocent Chinese American scientists was further confirmed by the dismissal of Professor Xi’s case in September 2015. CAPAC Chair Judy Chu called for a regular medium and platform to facilitate more timely and stronger communications to understand and respond to the growing pattern and concerns. A group of volunteers was formed to serve this purpose in the Fall of 2015. This APA Justice website is a product of the group's activities to provide information and facilitate connections and discussions within and beyond the community.
America is Our Home
Rep. Ted Lieu (CA) published an op-ed in the Washington Post on July 16, 2019, titled I have served in the Air Force and in Congress. People still tell me to ‘go back’ to China
APAPA statement | OCA statement
APAPA statement | OCA statement
APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem to address racial profiling issues and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian American community. "
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A definition of Racial Profiling is "the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense." In its extreme, it led to the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. In more recent times, Chinese American scientists such as Wen Ho Lee, Sherry Chen, and Xiaoxing Xi have been wrongly targeted for espionage-related prosecutions, falling victim as "collateral damage." Chinese Americans are subject to profiling under what the FBI Director has called a "whole-of-society" approach to address national security concerns. Read more about about racial profiling of Asian Americans.
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During a time of rising tension between the U.S. and China, an entire group of students, scholars and scientists of Chinese heritage is caught in the crossfires and targeted as potential national security threats to America. An increasing number of faculty and students have reported that they have been subject to prejudicial comments, unwarranted scrutiny or professional strictures based on their race, ethnicity or national origin. The current state is alarming. Read about how community and scientific organizations, universities and higher education institutions , and Congressional leaders are reacting and responding to these growing concerns.
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A pattern of racial profiling against Chinese American scientists began to emerge in 2015. There are real-life victims including a growing list of Sherry Chen, Professor Xiaoxing Xi, Dr. Yanping Chen, and others.
A combination of human mistakes, implicit bias, social stigmatism, explicit prejudice, and racial profiling may explain why some of these innocent individuals were wrongly prosecuted or investigated for years in the first place. However, the damages done to them and their families are undeniably devastating. In addition to victims whose cases were dismissed or found not guilty, some agreed to much lesser infractions than the original charges to avoid financial ruins. Our nation loses their talents and contributions to the society when they are forced to leave the country. These cases are almost never reported by the government. |
April 1, 2020 is the next census day. On March 29, 2018, the Census Bureau announced the last-minuite additon of a citizenship question and the use of administrative records in the 2020 Census. The decisions, made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, will have adverse impacts on the immigrant communities including Asian Americans, as well as profound long-term effects on the privacy rights for all Americans. Three federal judges have ruled the addition of citizenship question to be unlawfully and in one case unconsitutional. The Supreme Court decided on the question in June 2019. An executive order was then issued to collect administrative data on citizenship from federal agencies. The issue impacting re-districting will continue. Read more about the citizenship question and use of administrative data and its current state here, as well as over 900 media reports about its continuing developments.
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