The incursion of armed federal immigration agents in his beloved hometown of Los Angeles shocked Kent Wong.<\/p>\n
The labor leader and educator spent the summer vigorously organizing training sessions for more than a thousand workers and union organizers to peacefully protest the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on immigrant communities. It was work he had done for much of his life, but which he said had taken on more urgency now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a time that calls for thoughtful, mass action,\u201d Wong told The Times in an interview in July. \u201cHow could this blatant racial profiling, the terrorizing of the communities of Los Angeles, take place without a direct challenge to this injustice? That\u2019s why we came together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wong, who spent decades teaching a doctrine of nonviolent resistance, died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 69, due to cardiopulmonary failure with complications from endocarditis. <\/p>\n
His family and his longtime colleagues said the principles of understanding and peace he advocated were reflective of how he also conducted himself in his personal life. He was also known for holding closely the cause of supporting immigrant workers, as well as fostering Asian American labor leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the heart of everything Kent did was his unwavering commitment to protecting and uplifting immigrant workers,\u201d said California state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a former longtime labor leader who built deep ties with Wong over decades of working together, in a statement. <\/p>\n
Susan Minato, co-president of hospitality union Unite Here Local 11 who was involved in organizing the training sessions over the summer with Wong, said when he founded an affinity group called the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance in the 1990s, he reached out and brought her into the fold.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmbracing people and making people feel comfortable and like they belonged is nonviolence in an interpersonal way, and he practiced that,\u201d Minato said.<\/p>\n
As a fifth-generation Chinese American, Wong had always understood the struggle of immigrants, and sought to connect the labor movement across borders.<\/p>\n
He was the son of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Delbert Wong, the first Chinese American judge in the continental United States, and Dolores Wong, a psychiatric social worker and leader in the effort to establish a public library in Chinatown.<\/p>\n
Both of Wong\u2019s grandmothers, who were born in the U.S., lost their citizenship when they married male Chinese nationals \u2014 the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which went into effect in 1882.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe saw how citizenship is often a weapon used to divide communities and divide families,\u201d his son Ryan said.<\/p>\n