Good morning, and welcome to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing — your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders. Send tips and feedback to [email protected] and support our work by making a donation.
— Edited by Shawna Chen
The Biden Era
WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION OFFICE: The Biden administration launched the White House’s first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention last week. Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the office’s work, which will serve as central command for the administration’s efforts against gun violence.
- Harris and President Joe Biden have pushed to prioritize community policing as the number of mass shootings per year continues to rise. Both continue to call on Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require strict and safe storage of firearms, mandate background checks for all gun sales, and end gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.
- On our radar: The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has proposed a rule to reduce the number of guns sold without background checks by requiring people who sell firearms online or at gun shows to hold licenses and run background checks on their buyers.
DEVELOPING: A federal judge in Texas has ruled against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-era immigration policy created to shield undocumented youth from deportation. The decision would affect over 14,000 Asian Americans and 150 Pacific Islanders who are protected under DACA, according to legal and civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
BIDEN AND MODI REAFFIRM U.S.-INDIA TIES AT G20 SUMMIT: At the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, President Joe Biden and the controversial Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to focus on shared interests such as national security, education, and technological advancement.
- In the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two leaders established the creation of the India-U.S. Global Challenges Institute, a collaboration between the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology and the Association of American Universities, to promote growth in the fields of science and technology.
- Yes, but: Many Indian Americans see Modi as pushing a Hindu nationalist agenda and have protested Biden’s largely amiable relationship with the leader, whom activists allege has violated numerous human rights and religious freedoms.
BODY CAM FOOTAGE RELEASED FROM INDIAN STUDENT’S DEATH: Jaahnavi Kandula, an Indian graduate student, was struck and killed by a Seattle police car in January. Advocacy groups and government officials are now urging the Biden administration to further investigate after newly released body camera footage shows an officer appearing to trivialize her killing.
- Officer Kevin Dave was driving at 74 mph when he hit Kandula at a crosswalk. Fellow officer Daniel Auderer, who responded to the scene, can be heard laughing while claiming Kandula’s life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check.”
- The footage caused widespread outrage and spurred several Indian American Congress members to demand justice and accountability. Auderer, who serves as vice president of the Seattle Police Police Officers Guild, has since attempted to claim that he was satirizing the legal negotiations that would follow Kandula’s death.
- The Indian Consulate in San Francisco later issued a statement referring to reports of the incident as “deeply troubling.” The consulate noted on X, formerly Twitter, that it has “taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington D.C. for a thorough investigation & action against those involved in this tragic case.”
On The Hill
KIM TAKES ON MENENDEZ: Rep. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) has tossed a gauntlet into the 2024 race for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-New Jersey) seat following the senator’s refusal to resign despite facing bribery and fraud charges.
- Federal investigators found over $480,000 in cash, as well as gold bars and luxury items, in Menendez’s home, which they allege were bribes for assisting three New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government.
- A former Obama aide in a national security role, Kim defeated incumbent former Rep. Tom MacArthur (R) for the House seat in 2018 in a close race, becoming the first Korean American in 20 years to be elected to Congress.
- In a heated 2022 re-election campaign, Kim depicted himself as more moderate and pushed for bipartisanship. The predominantly white district he represents voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
- Kim was the first among New Jersey’s congressional Democrats to call for Menedrez’s resignation. A 2024 senate campaign was “not something I expected to do, but NJ deserves better. We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity,” Kim said on X.
CLEARING THE FAMILY IMMIGRATION BACKLOG: Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) and other AAPI lawmakers have re-introduced the Reuniting Families Act in a bid to implement what Chu calls “common-sense fixes” for the four million people stuck in America’s backlogged family reunification system.
- That includes expanding general and per-country limits on available visas to accelerate their processing.
- In their words: “In the aftermath of war and genocide in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, many Southeast Asian American families were separated in their escape to safety … the Reuniting Families Act would ensure that SEAA families are made whole again and make the US immigration system more humane,” Southeast Asian advocacy organization SEARAC said in a statement.
- Chu first introduced the bill in 2018 before re-introducing it in 2019. The third iteration scaled back earlier attempts to remove per-country immigration limits entirely, and Chu said that some provisions have already been “incorporated into bipartisan legislation.” All 36 of the bill’s current co-sponsors are Democrats.
RECOGNIZING POST-9/11 HATE: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) introduced a resolution earlier this month acknowledging “the lasting damages faced by Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities in the aftermath” of the 9/11 attacks, which led to a spike in hate crimes targeting those groups.
- Within a week of 9/11, the New York Times reported the killings of a Sikh gas station owner in Arizona, a Pakistani grocery store owner in Dallas, and an Egyptian man in California.
- The number of reported anti-Muslim assaults reached a new peak in 2016, shortly before then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning nationals of several predominantly Muslim countries from U.S. entry.
- “In the years since 9/11, our Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities have endured persistent racism, xenophobia, and discrimination,” co-sponsor Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) said in a statement. “It’s long past time for our government to acknowledge the trauma it has and continues to inflict on our communities.”
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