Op-ed: AAHPI month is over, but the work is not

Mountain View’s Community for All initiative reflects a commitment to promote strategies that protect vulnerable populations and preserve the socioeconomic and cultural diversity that defines who we are. It is not a slogan. It is a framework that coordinates city staff, city departments, human services and community partners around a shared value: that everyone who lives, works and visits Mountain View deserves to feel safe and welcomed, regardless of immigration status.

As concerns within our community have grown, the city has rolled up its sleeves alongside regional partners and joined legal actions defending state laws that protect undocumented residents from federal enforcement overreach. Community for All is Mountain View’s answer, in policy and in practice, to the question of what local government is meant for.

Community organizations and advocates across our region are working with Bay Area counties and with cities, including Mountain View, to establish policies that protect the safety and well-being of our diverse communities. Mountain View has reaffirmed our commitment to being a community for all, discontinued our use of automatic license plate readers and will soon be reviewing a policy related to the use of our city owned property. Santa Clara County’s Rapid Response Network offers a 24/7 hotline for community members to report immigration enforcement activity and receive immediate support.

With the potential of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities opening in Gilroy and Dublin, the threat is growing. But this is also a unifying moment. These facilities are bad for our communities and bad for business.

A March 2026 report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute makes the numbers plain: the nearly 500,000 immigrants who live and work in the Bay Area contribute across industries ranging from construction and hospitality to manufacturing, transportation and caregiving. Mass deportation could reduce regional economic output by as much as $67 billion annually, roughly 5% to 6% of the entire Bay Area economy. We must work together to protect all of our residents and our economy.

This issue does not affect just one group, it affects all of us. Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities know what it means to be scapegoated, surveilled and excluded, time and time again. Our own families were detained and incarcerated during World War II. We cannot look away when history is repeating itself. Solidarity is not a spectator sport. Our undocumented neighbors, our mixed-status families, our diverse communities absorbing the brunt of this enforcement surge are all of us.

That is why, together, we will keep using every tool available to protect civil liberties, dismantle surveillance that endangers our neighbors, and strengthen the Community for All framework so Mountain View’s public spaces and services truly belong to everyone who lives here. We hope you will join us at City Council meetings, in support of immigrant-serving organizations and at the ballot box.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is over now. The work is not.

Ellen Kamei is a multiracial and multilingual Mountain View councilmember and former mayor. Akemi Flynn, is managing director of the countywide, cross-sector Immigrant Protection & Empowerment Network based at Amigos de Guadalupe and a multi-racial Asian American.