[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 184 (Tuesday, November 4, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S7901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING KENT WONG

 Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the life 
of Kent Wong, a champion for working people, defender of immigrants, 
and tireless advocate for nonviolent protest and civic participation in 
America.
  A fifth-generation Chinese American, Kent Wong was born to Delbert 
and Dolores Wong and raised in the community of Silver Lake, CA. His 
mother was a psychiatric social worker, and his father was the first 
Chinese American judge in the continental United States, which meant 
Kent spent a lifetime committed to empowering working people and 
communities of color in California.
  After graduating from the People's College of Law in 1984, Kent 
became the first staff attorney for the Asian Pacific American Legal 
Center for Southern California and, later, staff attorney for SEIU 
Local 660. It was then that, alongside other Los Angeles-based 
activists, Kent began studying nonviolence under a titan of the Civil 
Rights Movement, James Lawson.
  Over the course of the 8 years from 1992-2000, putting his training 
into action, Kent founded the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and 
the Tourism Industry Development Council, cofounded the economic 
justice and tenants' rights group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, 
and helped create the United Association for Labor Education to help 
promote labor education across the Nation.
  But to countless friends and mentees, Kent was best known as 
professor of labor and Asian American studies, and as the beloved 
longtime director of the UCLA Labor Center, which he led from 1991-
2023. Under his tenure, he grew the organization from 3 to 42 staff 
members, helped secure funding for its permanent home in MacArthur 
Park, and spread the labor center model to seven other University of 
California campuses.
  During his time at UCLA, he also created the first class in the 
Nation focused on the unique barriers undocumented students encountered 
in higher education--and went on to work alongside undocumented 
immigrants to launch ``Dream Summer,'' the ``first paid, national 
fellowship program for and by undocumented youth.''
  In the final months of his life, Kent was organizing--training the 
next generation of activists to meet hatred and division with peaceful 
protest. Today, at a time of heightened tensions and division, we 
should all strive to be more like Kent Wong: principled, passionate, 
but through it all, peaceful.
  Angela and I send our love to Kent's wife Jai Lee; his sons Ryan and 
Robin; and his siblings Shelley and Marshall.

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