As a child growing up in Hong Kong, Jose Ng attended protests with his father. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but now as CAA’s immigrant rights program manager, he realizes how this childhood experience shaped his sense of justice and the work he does today. “My Dad brought me to protests,” he says. “So starting from very young, I am used to going to protests, going to public assemblies, and saying no to the government.”
Jose came to the United States to study social justice and community organizing at Loyola University in Chicago. During that time, a refugee crisis was taking place in the Middle East, and Jose interned at a refugee nonprofit, helping asylum seekers fleeing their home countries. From there, he found his way to CAA where he has worked for eight years.
What was your path to CAA?
I spent two years in Chicago for school, where I became deeply curious about the U.S. immigration system—especially what it’s like for people coming from less privileged backgrounds. As an international student, I had resources and support that many others didn’t. Through my internship, I began to see how issues like language access, discrimination, and refugee resettlement shape people’s daily lives—things you don’t learn in the classroom but have a direct impact on people’s lives. When I graduated, I wanted to find a job that let me put my experiences, language skills, and cultural background to work. That path led me to CAA.
You were with the CAA immigrant rights program during Trump’s first term. How is it different this time around?
A lot of people, including myself, we could never have anticipated that things could get this bad. Right now, the administration is in control of every branch of the government. They are appropriating more funding for militarization, for weaponization, for immigration enforcement arms. They passed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will have drastic changes to the immigration system, not just in increasing the filing fees, but also in appropriating $170 billion to immigration enforcement.
How has the political climate impacted CAA’s clients this year?
The immigrants we work with tell us they feel vulnerable in ways they have never before. They came here believing this was a nation governed by the rule of law — not ruled by a single person. But today, even people with lawful status, like students on F-1 visas, are seeing their status revoked and being told they must leave the country. DACA recipients are being targeted, too.
The scale of immigration enforcement and the way politicians talk about migrants and immigrant communities has changed. It’s no longer just about undocumented immigrants — this is about every immigrant, every community, undocumented or not.
We work with people of many different immigration statuses, and there’s a pervasive sense of fear. People are losing their jobs because employers say they can’t take the risk anymore — they’re afraid ICE will come after them for hiring immigrants. Families are struggling to survive as a result.
At the same time, the federal government is cutting off funding that local governments once used to support these families. The new laws they’ve passed now require reporting the immigration status of every family member. And the Trump administration has reportedly pressured the IRS to share taxpayer data with ICE to aid in immigration enforcement.
It feels like a full-scale attack on every aspect of immigrants’ lives — a deliberate effort to make life here so difficult that people are pressured to self-deport.
There’s been an increase in arrests at immigration courts across the country. How has the immigrant rights team responded?
We have been called to deal with ICE arrests involving Chinese community members who are trying to attend their immigration court hearings in San Francisco.
CAA is part of the city’s immigration rapid response network, which responds to urgent immigration detention and arrests happening in the city. When a partner organization reaches out to us about Chinese migrants being detained, our team goes to the detention center. We provide interpretation support immediately. When we are done with interpretation at the holding cell with the attorney, we contact the family, letting them know what’s going on and next steps in the process.
What is the hotline number and when should people call it?
It’s a 24/7 hotline, and you can call 415-200-1548.
What gives you hope or brings you joy in this work?
The joy I find in this work comes from seeing the families we’ve supported over the years. Some of these families first came to us during the first Trump era, and they’ve finally been able to change their immigration status. That means everything — it changes their lives forever. They can work, they can travel, and they can reunite with loved ones.
One longtime community member was recently able to adjust her status through her son’s petition. She hadn’t seen her husband in 20 years — he’s now almost 80. When she finally flew back to Hong Kong to see him, it was incredibly moving. After being apart for so long, how do you sustain a marriage, a family? And yet, somehow, people manage. I felt so happy for them when they were finally reunited.
Another source of joy for me is how we do our work — it’s deeply cross-racial. It’s not just about serving the Chinese community. We connect and collaborate across different communities, asking: how can we work together? It’s not only about fixing the immigration system — it’s about making life better here in the U.S., creating a more inclusive society for everyone, regardless of immigration status or where they come from.
