- Coming up on "Austin InSight," immigration enforcement, an update on a local teenager taken to a mega prison in El Salvador.

Also, questions about a new law impacting Chinese Americans in Texas.

Next on "Austin InSight".

- [Narrator] Support for "Austin Insight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti Restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Hi there, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

Stepped up immigration enforcement is meeting with robust opposition across the country.

That includes right here in Austin, with protests last week.

Immigration also was a top concern among people gathered last weekend in a so-called No Kings demonstration.

- No kings!

- No kings!

- No kings!

- No kings!

- No kings!

- No kings!

- No kings!

- Immigration advocates are questioning the legality of some of the arrests made over the past few months, including a local case.

Back in March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, arrested a teenager, Carlos Daniel Teran, who was seeking asylum from Venezuela.

Teran was living here with his family.

At a recent panel discussion organized by a local advocacy group, Teran's father described what happened when his son was taken from their home.

(Juan speaking in foreign language) (Juan speaking in foreign language continues) (Juan speaking in foreign language continues) (Juan speaking in foreign language continues) (Juan speaking in foreign language continues) - We previously spoke with the attorney representing Teran.

More in this interview.

(upbeat music) Joining us now is Edna Yang, Executive Director of American Gateways, the local nonprofit providing legal services in that case.

Thanks so much for being here, Edna.

- Thank you for having me today.

- So Edna, let's first get an update on the Carlos Daniel Teran case.

What's next?

- Well, last Wednesday, the district court judge ruled that the Trump Administration did violate the due process rights of the 140 individuals that were unlawfully sent to the prison in El Salvador, and that includes my client, Carlos Daniel.

He did give the administration a week to figure out a plan so that those individuals could access the justice system, be able to review their removal cases or their deportation cases, apply for relief, and get access to our justice system here.

We're waiting to see what that plan looks like.

We're not sure.

The judge wasn't willing to order the administration to bring all those individuals back.

So for now, hopefully by this Wednesday, we'll have some sort of plan and indication about what's going to happen to Carlos Daniel and the other men who are there.

- And how is this case emblematic of the larger concerns that you have as an advocate for immigrants rights about due process and other constitutional matters?

- Yeah, I think what we've seen in the last five to six months has been a slow erosion of our constitutional rights and of due process in general.

And I think it should be worrisome for the community at large, not just the immigrant community.

Right now, it's targeting the immigrant community.

We have actions where this administration is arresting individuals who are in deportation proceedings.

They're doing what is legally required of them.

Coming to court, showing up in order to apply for relief, answer charges.

And, you know, if their case gets denied, they get ordered deported.

If not, then they are able to remain here because they've won a form of relief.

Before individuals can actually get through that justice process, ICE is showing up at the courts, they are seeking terminations of those proceedings, and then they are directly arresting people, oftentimes in front of their small children who have no idea what's going on, detaining them, and then forcing them to give up their rights, their rights to access the justice system.

These are individuals who are following everything that the law tells 'em that they need to do in order to seek protection here in the United States.

And so we're seeing that erosion slowly in this arena, but it's going to expand, I think, if we don't really try and check what is currently happening to some of our most vulnerable in the community.

- And now we're seeing videos from around the country circulating of ICE showing up and community members gathering to try to stop ICE from taking individuals.

And as you think about what's been happening with immigration enforcement this year, how does the impact compare to your expectations?

- So I think when this administration came into power this January, we were expecting definitely blow back for the immigrant community because of the things that were said about deportations, about there being an invasion, and just targets against the immigrant community.

I think the extent of what we're seeing right now is much more than I or other advocates for the immigrant community really thought was going to happen.

There's a lot of fear in the community, because individuals who have their work permits, who are seeking forms of relief, who are waiting for decisions from immigration, are now at risk.

And before, they didn't have to be at risk, or they weren't at risk.

There were definitely protections for those individuals who are going through a legal process.

And now I think there's no guarantee for anyone, even those going through legal processes.

I think people are concerned about what this means not only for the immigrant community, but also for the community at large.

When you have threats of an administration saying, "We're under invasion, so we wanna get rid of habeas corpus, we wanna send individuals to third countries," where they may remain in jail for the rest of their lives for not having committed any type of criminal violation or having any type of criminal conviction, that should concern all of us.

And so we're starting to see some of that come to light.

I think that there have always been advocates, attorneys, community members who have been pushing back against this, filing in court, asking for justifications, and questioning what is happening, but I think we as a community need to respond even more and ask why this is happening and what we can do to prevent it.

- We've seen a number of court decisions that have blocked or put on hold some of these enforcement actions.

But overall, how have the courts responded, in your view?

- I think the courts have responded well in some cases.

You know, by saying that the Trump Administration can't use the Alien Enemies Act, by saying that there are due process rights when individuals are told that they are gonna be sent to third countries where they have no ties.

But I also think that this administration has pushed back very hard against our judicial branch, and they've threatened those individuals who are making these decisions.

And so I think some of the decisions could be stronger, I think they could be enforced, and I think there could be more of a discussion of what our constitution says and what our justice system is and what it's supposed to do in terms of checking power.

- And you've touched on this, but just to reiterate, what do you think is the greatest risk in our democratic system or principles because of this?

- I think it is an erosion of our constitutional rights, the very basis of our justice system, which is due process.

The idea that if you are going to be accused of something, you will know who is accusing you and what you're being accused of in a criminal context, or even in a civil context if someone is suing you or you're in deportation proceedings.

If you're gonna be detained, there should be a check on how long you are detained for, the reason that you are being detained.

It shouldn't be something where you could be sent to, essentially, a black site, or to a third country where you have no ties, where you sit in jail and you're forgotten.

I think our constitution very much holds these beliefs that justice can only be done when these rules are followed, and that no one person or branch has complete and total power.

And so we need to continue down the path to ensure that due process is preserved, because if not, I think we're gonna have some problems with the very foundations of our government, our form of government, our constitution, and the justice system.

- Edna Yang with American Gateways, thank you so much for this update and for sharing your thoughts with us.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) Sticking with the topic of immigration, we now have a look at the historic significance of Chinese immigration in Texas, plus recent challenges like a new state law that will ban the sale of property in Texas to some Chinese immigrants.

We visited a new exhibit at the Austin Central Library and spoke with Hugh Li, who heads the Austin Chinese-American Network, a nonprofit community support group.

Joining us now is Hugh Li, the President of the Austin Chinese-American Network.

Hugh, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you.

- So Hugh, Texas has the third largest percentage of Asian Americans of all states in the US, with the largest group being Chinese immigrants.

What role have Chinese immigrants played in Texas history?

- Oh, as you can see from the exhibit here, there is a lot, and the history goes back hundreds of years in Texas, as well as in the US.

And Chinese immigrants came to this state, you know, centuries ago, and have been on this land ever since and making their contributions, making their own American dreams.

And it continues till today.

- And these days, economic, along with geopolitical and other tensions, or rather, a rivalry between the US and China, have been top of mind.

How is that then impacting Chinese Americans here in Texas today?

- It's impacting us in many different ways.

I would say that started around the COVID pandemic.

You can feel that there is a level of animosity towards Asian Americans, towards Chinese Americans, in the US, in Texas.

And I think things got even worse lately.

We feel that there is a lot of tension that was put on the Chinese American here in Texas, and that makes us feel fear, fearful, and uncertain about our future, and particularly our next generation's future in Texas.

- The Texas legislature has passed a bill giving the governor power to ban certain property ownership by Chinese individuals, as well as individuals of nations who are from nations that the government has deemed hostile to the United States.

The bill has been called racist by some Asian Americans in the legislature, like Gene Wu from Houston, principally.

What are your thoughts on that?

- I think my personal view is that these bills are definitely discriminatory, because it singles out nationals from certain countries from around the world, certain countries, to target.

And, you know, by definition, that is a discrimination on the national origin basis.

These bills, like SB17 that you just mentioned, targets people from four different countries.

That's China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.

And so the bill, SB17, even though in name targets nationals from those four countries, it actually predominantly targets Chinese Americans or Chinese nationals in Texas.

So you could legitimately call, you know, some of the clauses targeting, you know, a specific group from a certain country to be racist.

- And the tensions between US and China some are saying is what's propelling this, and they're citing these national security concerns.

But as a Chinese American living here in Texas and seeing these bills and these national, international conversations play out, what is your response as a Chinese American to those people's security concerns?

- From a national security standpoint, yes, China and the US are not in a very good situation strategically, and you know, I think each might, you know, deem the other an adversary country.

The problem is, I have no problem of government policies targeting foreign countries, or foreign governments, or even the ruling parties, but we cannot actually, you know, impact the people, the individual people who are from those countries who are already in the US legally, and in Texas legally, building our American dream, because it's very important to separate national security policies from targeting entities and governments to impacting individuals.

Because US is a democracy, and we have constitution, we have constitutional rights, we have constitutions that protects individual rights, including property rights.

So in this case, I feel that these legislations, you know, trying to strengthen the security measure of Texas against the foreign adversaries, but it actually impacts individuals like me, and like, you know, my friends, and students who are coming to Texas to study, workers, high tech workers, coming to Texas to help build a manufacturing, high tech manufacturing, in Texas, and build the Texas economy.

I think the impact on these people is what really, really worries us and worries our community.

- Well, Hugh Li, President of the Austin Chinese American Network, thank you so much for answering our questions and sharing your insight with us.

- Thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Chinese Heritage in Austin is on display at Austin Central Library in a first of its kind exhibit, which we toured with June Xu, President of the Asian American Art and Culture Initiative.

Now we're here with the president and founder of the Asian American Art and Culture Initiative, June Xu.

June, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you for having us.

- So June, right now, we are at the Austin Central Library at the new exhibit, "Roots Unveiled: Chinese American History 1783 to 1945".

That's a lot of years.

So, please can you tell us how all the various artifacts, the videos, and the photos and other cool objects you have here, help tell the story of Chinese immigration here in Texas?

- Well, actually, this history has been overlooked for many years.

So, our curator, Xuhua Zhan, has divided the entire exhibit into four parts, include the US-China relation, when and how did US and China first started the relationship, right?

They need to start dating, right?

And then get into a relationship, right?

And then it also talk about how there are two ways of Chinese immigrants coming to United States back in the 1800.

Number one was the exchange program of students, you know, between the Qing China and the US government.

There was agreement, a treaty for that.

And then later on, the Transcontinental Railroad.

That's when the most Chinese immigrants start flushing into United States.

They were invited to come here to build a railroad.

And we zoom into Austin, and what did Austin community has to tell to us?

And we found out that there was a rich history in the Austin community that represent Texas very, very well, so we were the one that wanted to uncover that history to everyone.

- And I wanna elaborate on one quote that really I feel like epitomizes your mission here and that struck me personally, the quote from your curator, saying in part, quote, "Too often, Chinese Americans are caught between geopolitical tensions they didn't create," end quote.

It's certainly very timely to today.

Why do you think it's important to better understand and to shed new light on these eras of Chinese American history?

- I think the history tells us that Chinese Americans always caught in between, like you said, right?

So, back in the 1800s, 1780s, after the Transcontinental Railroad was done, there was the Chinese Exclusion Act, so we were the ones being expelled.

And then now we are caught in between this geopolitical tension.

We wanted to send a message that the people should be separated from the government, and we should not be penalized by what the Chinese, our origin, government, has done, and being penalized here in the US.

We are here basically seeking the American dream that we want, and we are here to build a family, a beautiful family, contribute back to the society that we live in, just same thing as what we are doing in Texas.

And that's the message that we wanted to send out.

- And that being said, when people come here, what do you hope that they learn and take away with them?

- I hope that they can see, compare our narrative to the propaganda that is outside this exhibit.

I think that the Chinese American history are too often overlooked.

We are not on textbook.

We are overseen by many programs in the past.

We are not that important.

And usually those propagandas are louder than our own voice.

We felt that there is a narrative that we need to change from within, from our community.

We need to present our voice to the greater society and let 'em connect that, the message out there, connect and compare to what we have here in this exhibit.

- It's so important for all of us to learn, and I love how you made it engaging and really visual and accessible for everyone.

"Roots Unveiled" is open now until August 31st here at the Austin Central Library.

June Xu, the president and founder of the Asian American Art and Culture Initiative, thank you so much for speaking with us.

- Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Meanwhile, we're marking Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US.

We're recalling Austin's segregated past when, beginning in 1928, formerly enslaved people and their descendants were forced to live on the city's east side.

The evolution and gentrification of that part of Austin are a source of ongoing controversy.

From the Austin PBS original docuseries "Taco Mafia", we have a story of perseverance and unique local flavor.

Here's a visit to 67-year-old Sam's BBQ, with an introduction from the owners of the James Beard and Michelin honored Nixta Taqueria.

(upbeat music) - When we came into Nixta, we were already part of that neighborhood, you know?

We live a few minutes up the street on 12th Street.

Directly across the street from Nixta is Section 8 housing, and to the left of us is million dollar little mini McMansions that are popping up, as they are all over East Austin, as gentrification continues to spread.

Being very conscious about where we were in East Austin, knowing that it was a historically Black neighborhood, all the businesses that were owned on our street were all 100% owned by African Americans.

- You have to pay homage.

I mean, you gotta recognize we're nothing without the history and the culture that was there far before us.

What our responsibility is, is making sure that in the spirit of Dozen Street, we're doing what we can to make the neighborhood proud.

And we live 10 seconds away from Sam's BBQ.

- [Edgar] They've been there for over 70, 80 plus years.

- [Sara] And has that great mural, "You don't need no teeth to eat my beef."

- [Edgar] "Don't need no teeth to eat my beef."

- That's iconic.

- [Edgar] Yeah, I love that logo.

And then the people that have walked through that building, like, if you walk into Sam's BBQ, you look at the walls, you are just like, "Damn, I am somewhere historic right now."

The place smells like quintessential smokehouse barbecue.

- I'm Brian Mays, the owner at Sam's BBQ.

I'm from Austin, Texas, 78721 and 02.

My daddy won the building.

He won Sam's gambling one night in a gambling game.

From man across the street stayed right there.

It was a little, bitty building, little, bitty house.

my address been here all my life.

This is what I put all my life into, my dedication and everything, into this.

- [Sara] They're someone that we look up to.

They've been there forever.

They're family owned.

They own the property.

And they're steadfast of like, "No, we're not relinquishing this."

- The gentrification moved all the Black folks out here and then move everybody else in here now.

I'm still here.

I ain't gonna change, boss.

What you want?

- They know that they have something there that's very special.

They're gonna hold their feet there and, you know, build something that's very special that, you know, Brian can give to his future family members, and they can continue passing on that wealth to each other, and that's something that's very... That we admire, that we hope to be able to build with Nixta, you know, on that same level.

(upbeat music) - [Sara] I think at the end of the day, we all have the same goal in mind, which is, like, make nourishing food for- - Our communities.

- Yeah, for your neighbors.

- We all friends, we in the same hood.

We all gotta respect each other.

We all help each other.

If one need help, we all help each other.

- I'm definitely gonna have to add that to my list of barbecues to try.

Love to see that they're open 67 years later.

"Taco Mafia" is an example of the kind of in-depth, community-focused storytelling that Austin PBS delivers.

But as you may know, the US House of Representatives has voted to take back previously approved funding for PBS.

A vote in the US Senate is expected soon.

In any case, Austin PBS is really grateful for significant support from the local community, and that was on full display when the Austin City Council declared Austin PBS Day on June 9th.

District 4 City Council member Chito Vela was on hand for a special event here at our studios.

He says PBS was a big part of his childhood.

- I mean, you think about a show like a "Sesame Street", a show like the "NewsHour", just the role that public television has played in the culture of the country, in the education of the country, it's absolutely critical.

So to abolish that in a day when there there's such a wealthy country cannot afford to have a public television series that provides children's programming and basic news reporting?

I just don't understand that.

- Another example of how Austin PBS engages the local community is the Annual Family Fest, which took place a few weeks ago.

The event is part of the Ready-to-Learn program, led by the Education Services team here at Austin PBS.

Hundreds turned out for the fun, food, and music.

But we want to note that the recent canceling of the Federal Ready-to-Learn grant required the team to scale back on this year's event and other planned activities.

- What I feel that is especially critical, especially as we're seeing other cuts in our support of families at risk, are the cuts that impact education, that will impact new shows that are coming out from PBS Kids National that address actual needs that they've identified in our communities.

- For more about the potential impact of federal budget cuts, you can go to protectmypublicmedia.org.

And that's our show.

Thanks again for watching.

You can always watch our segments in the Austin PBS YouTube channel or catch full episodes for free in the PBS app.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Support for "Austin Insight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti Restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(bright flute music)