Providence Student Youth Movement member Tam Nguyen, left, and group executive director Kohei Ishihara work together in their office. The ACLU honored their group last night.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE –– Standing up to public officials can set sparks flying, as the Providence Student Youth Movement (PrYSM) learned when it lambasted the Carcieri administration last year for laying off three state Southeast Asian interpreters. The ensuing controversy lasted weeks.

Last night, the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union presented PrYSM with its “Civil Libertarian of the Year” award, in part for those actions.

The ACLU honored “the professionalism of [PrYSM’s] members in standing up to the ad hominem personal attacks leveled against them by public officials” over the interpreter controversy, and for the group’s social advocacy work on behalf of the Southeast Asian community.

The award was presented at the Rhode Island ACLU’s annual dinner, which this year focused on immigrants’ rights. Omar Jadwat, staff attorney for the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, was the guest speaker at the event, held at the Providence Biltmore.

The controversy erupted last December after Governor Carcieri cut the interpreter positions to pare the state’s budget deficit. PrYSM members said Carcieri’s actions were unlawful under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. One member called Carcieri’s actions “racist,” another said the governor was signaling that the Southeast Asian community “is not valued or welcome.”

In turn, the governor’s wife, Sue Carcieri, likened the group’s members to terrorists.

“Last year, the group organized a very visible, articulate and well-covered campaign against Governor Donald Carcieri’s decision to lay off all the state’s Southeast Asian social service interpreters,” the ACLU said in a statement about the award.

“Teen members from PrYSM spoke stirringly of the consequences that decision had for their families. In a shocking response, First Lady Suzanne Carcieri equated the teens with the terrorists who had assassinated Benazir Bhutto.”

The Rhode Island ACLU noted that it has worked with PrYSM on a number of other civil liberties issues, “and has found the energetic group a consistent force in advocating for civil rights.”

In an interview prior to last night’s award ceremony, executive director Kohei Ishihara reflected on the fallout — good and bad — from that controversy.

“I would say the negative is just the sheer assault from [Mrs. Carcieri] of comparing us to terrorists, and the lack of respect [from the governor] for refusing to meet with us afterwards and talk about the issue,” Ishihara said.

On the upside, “Because of the flamboyant nature of the comments, we actually received wide-spread support,” he said. “Within a week, we received $2,000 in a host of donations.”

The Providence School Department has since upped its response to PrYSM’s campaign to improve language access for Southeast Asian students and their families, he said.

That includes translating the department’s quarterly newsletter into Khmer, Lao and Hmong, Ishihara said, and providing similar translations for the automatic phone system that notifies parents of school cancellations or early dismissal.

Ishihara called the department’s commitment to translate the student code of conduct into Southeast Asian languages “a major victory.” For several decades since Southeast Asian refugees first arrived in Rhode Island, “they’ve been having Southeast Asian parents signing a contract they couldn’t read. We saw this as a major victory, something small, but so basic, so essential — the main contract between parents and the School Department is now accessible in parents’ languages.”

Ishihara said he regrets that the governor declined the group’s request that he meet with them.

Besides discussing the language needs of the community, the group hoped to learn whether the governor “understands who the Southeast Asians are, their history in Rhode Island and almost from a global perspective, their connection to United States.”

Ishihara said, “Does he understand that Southeast Asians came here as political refugees? Does he understand they have one of the highest poverty rates [in Providence]? Does he understand the extent of the linguistic isolation … for certain pockets of the population?”

Tam Nguyen, 17, the PrYSM member who called Carcieri’s actions “racist,” said he received much support from peers and others, but some criticism stung.

Comments such as “Why don’t these Southeast Asians learn to speak English?” upset Nguyen; he noted that first-generation Southeast Asian refugees — who fled war and genocide in their homelands — often put supporting their families ahead of learning English, just to survive.

“I’m happy that we’re receiving an award, and that there are actually people that realize and care about the [Southeast Asian] community,” said Nguyen. “It makes me happy that we’re gaining recognition for standing up for what we believe.”

Last night’s guest speaker, Jadwat, said in an earlier phone interview that he believes “patchwork” efforts to effect immigration reform at state and local levels often end up “with unconstitutional laws being passed, or completely unworkable schemes, without any thought to what the policy implications are. And that, obviously, doesn’t serve anybody well.”

kziner@projo.com