For this month’s Member Spotlight, and in honor of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we spoke with Danielle Iwata, the Director of Organizing at AAPI New Jersey.

Tell me a little bit about AAPI-NJ.

Our organization was founded after the Atlanta Spa shooting. We came together in 2021 to figure out what our community's response was going to be and how we were going to create spaces for ourselves, our cultures, and our communities.

Since our founding, we've become a statewide organization that's fighting for the rights, representation, and well-being of New Jersey's over 1 million Asian Americans (Yes, there are a ton of us in the State!). New Jersey actually has the 4th highest concentration of Asian Americans in the United States, so we really want to see infrastructure and resources that reflect our communities and our diverse set of needs.

We do that through Policy & Advocacy – working alongside organizations like the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice – as well as civic engagement and community programming that celebrates our different cultures. We also have Teach Asian American Stories, an initiative that brings Asian American history and contributions into the classroom. Our incredible education team trains teachers on what they're teaching and how to teach it, while providing resources and curriculum development opportunities.

AAPI New Jersey recently expanded to be a statewide organization. Is there a sense of urgency in the current political landscape that motivated the expansion?

There’s an urgency right now with everything we're seeing, both nationally and in New Jersey. I think what people don't often recognize is that mass detention and deportation are issues that have long impacted Asian American communities. For example, I'm part Japanese American myself; my family was incarcerated during World War II under the Alien Enemies Act. That’s what drives me to be part of this work. We have other organizers on staff who have been working with Filipino community members who have faced detention. Even our national partners are coming to us and saying, “Hey, Bhutanese refugees are getting detained in New Jersey. What can you do about that?” In New Jersey, 22% of undocumented immigrants are Asian American, which is higher than the national average. I think one place that I see our organization fitting into this fight is educating Asian Americans about how these issues have impacted us historically, and continue to do so today.

How have you been fighting for immigrant justice statewide?

We are happy to fight alongside NJAIJ to pass the Immigrant Trust Act, which is an incredibly important bill. The current Immigrant Trust Directive is not the all-encompassing protection that people might think it is, and the Immigrant Trust Act would truly protect immigrants in New Jersey. 

We were also really excited about the Language Access law getting passed in New Jersey. We are working with NJAIJ and other coalition members towards the implementation of the law by pushing all State agencies to get the vital documents translated and interpreted. It’s important that all New Jerseyans have full access to the incredible services that our State has to offer.

Why is Language Access important to AAPI communities?

AAPIs are the most linguistically diverse immigrant community. For example, AAPI NJ translates documents into 10 different languages because of our community's diverse needs. But in New Jersey, we only see official government documents being translated into Korean in Bergen County and Gujarati in Middlesex County. That’s nowhere near what our community needs.

It’s AAPI Heritage Month. What is the value of having this kind of cultural celebration?

AAPI Heritage Month is an exciting and important time for our community to come together joyfully. There's so much about Asian American history and experiences that have been intentionally hidden or invisible, so to have this month where we get to be front and center for a little bit is special.

It’s also a moment for us to reconsider the roots of Asian American culture and identity in America, which is often rooted in resistance and the fight for justice. Even the term ‘Asian American’ is a political term that came out of the Civil Rights movement so that Asian Americans could fight alongside Black Americans. 

Activism and intersectionality are at the root of what it means to be Asian American, so this month also provides an opportunity for us to show up in the ways that are meaningful to the Asian American legacy.