On August 3, Freedom Road Socialist Organization leader Masao Suzuki condemned president Donald Trump for endorsing the racist and anti-immigrant bill called the “RAISE Act,” sponsored by Republican Senators Cotton (R-AR) and Purdue (R-GA). Trump said that the bill would cut legal immigration by one-half by slashing visas for non-English speaking and non-college educated immigrants, and by restricting family reunification. RAISE is an acronym for “Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act.”

Suzuki is chair of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Joint Nationalities Commission, which helps guide FRSO community organizing among oppressed nationalities – African Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos, Arab and Asian Americans, and indigenous peoples. He further noted, “The bill would have a great impact on Asian American communities, as immigration from China and India are now greater than from Mexico.”

In addition, the bill would slash immigration from Africa by ending the ‘diversity visa,’ which admits about half of all immigrants from that continent and would permanently decrease the number refugee visas. Suzuki ended by saying that “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to roll the country back to 1924,” a reference to the racist 1924 Immigration Act, which restricted immigration from eastern and southern Europe and excluded Asians.

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