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— Shawna Chen, Editor-in-Chief
The Biden Era
?️ WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES FIRST-EVER U.S.-PACIFIC ISLAND SUMMIT: President Joe Biden plans to host the inaugural U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28 to 29. The summit is a response to China’s growing diplomatic efforts in the region and comes after years of neglect by the U.S. despite Pacific leaders’ calls for engagement, Politico’s Phelim Kine reports.
DHS REVISES ‘PUBLIC CHARGE’ RULE: Last Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reinstated a pre-Trump precedent that prevents the U.S. from denying entry to an immigrant based on their likelihood of relying on benefits like Medicaid and food assistance. States are also considering further expansions to Medicaid regardless of immigration status, Axios’ Arielle Dreher reports.
- How it works: Most immigrants who are considered lawfully present typically have to wait for five years before becoming eligible for Medicaid coverage. Undocumented immigrants—which include an estimated 1.7 million Asian Americans—are ineligible for Medicaid or marketplace coverage entirely.
✍️ ICYMI—BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ISSUES DACA FINAL RULE: Late last month, the Department of Homeland Security issued a final rule to fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy, which protects the more than 600,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to legally work and study in the States.
- Longtime woes: DACA, which was established during the Obama administration by executive order, has faced a number of executive and legal challenges over the years. Even with the DHS’s new rule, the program’s status still hinges on pending litigation in the courts unless Congress passes the DREAM Act.
- Worth noting: Some Asian American advocates criticized the rule for continuing to exclude the country’s 200,000 “Documented Dreamers,” who are children of long-term visa holders who often wait years for a green card and face deportation if they don't obtain legal immigration status after turning 21.
? WHIAANHPI TACKLES FEDERAL EMPLOYEE PIPELINE: The White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) hosted two webinars on applying to jobs in the federal government in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) earlier this month.
- Context: Asian Americans remain underrepresented among top management roles—a phenomenon known as the “bamboo ceiling.” This trend holds true in the federal government as well, where Asian Americans comprised 6.1% of the federal workforce in 2018 but only 3.7% of senior executive roles, according to the latest data from the OPM.
- Pain points: Barriers to federal employment include difficulties with navigating entry-level opportunities and the federal government’s job portal, which has undergone usability redesigns in recent years. Training and leadership development programs such as the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) seek to provide alternatives, but PMF has historically struggled with recruiting diverse candidates, Federal News Network’s Nicole Ogrysko writes. Such critiques are not new, and calls for reform focus on the need for more equitable and accessible hiring practices.
MAKING MOVES: Viet H. Tran has joined the Office of Personnel Management as press secretary. Tran, an alum of the Biden-Harris campaign, previously served as a communications consultant at the advocacy agency RALLY and a former press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign.
On the Hill
?️ JAYAPAL SPEAKS OUT AMID RISING THREATS: After two men showed up outside her Seattle home in July with a pistol, threats, and a slew of insults—including one that referenced India—Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) is lobbying for stronger protections for lawmakers and laying out just what she has to deal with every day as an Indian American woman in Congress.
- In her words: “It should not be that you get this kind of abuse and racism and sexism directed at you. But you have to accept it if you want to do this job,” she told the Washington Post.
- "I don’t really want people to know it affects me,” she added. “And at the same time, so much of my work as an activist, and as a member of Congress, is to share vulnerability.”
- Gendered and racialized: Researchers have found that among politicians, women face far more personal online attacks than men. They’re also subjected to sexist and racist abuse, online disinformation campaigns and death and rape threats. Jayapal has said the surge in threats against lawmakers is tied to rhetoric from the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump.
HIRONO PUSHES FOR ACTION ON NATIVE HAWAIIAN EXPLOITATION: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai‘i) is calling on the FBI and Department of Justice to crack down on sex trafficking of Native Hawaiian women, citing data that shows two-thirds of Hawai‘i’s sex trafficking victims are Native Hawaiian even though NHPIs comprise under 11% of the state’s population, NBC Asian America’s Kimmy Yam reports.
- Federal agencies need to recognize that these cases overlap with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis—and must treat them as such, Hirono said.
- Context: The earliest recorded incidents of sex trafficking on the Hawaiian islands took place as European and American ships increasingly sought to exploit resources on and around Hawaiian land. It became commonplace for white men to traffic Native Hawaiian girls.
- Decades later, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women continue to face hypersexualization and racist stereotypes of promiscuity while remaining more vulnerable to predators due to poverty caused in large part by historical marginalization.
- ICYMI: Hirono pressed FBI Director Chris Wray on her concerns during an August Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Wray said the FBI is “very aggressively working that issue.”
KIM LEADS LETTER URGING BIDEN TO DENY RAISI ENTRY: Joined by 51 lawmakers, Rep. Young Kim (R-California) delivered a bipartisan letter to Biden last week calling on the president to deny Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation entry into the U.S. for the United Nations’ 77th General Assembly later this month. The Biden administration has faced increasing pressure to turn Raisi away, including an open letter signed by over 500 Iranian American scientists, academics, and professionals.
- Don’t forget: In Iran, Raisi remains under U.S. sanctions for his alleged involvement in the 1988 killings of over 30,000 political prisoners. Amnesty International has accused him of presiding over an array of crimes against humanity and ongoing human rights violations, including mass detentions and reported torture.
TRACKING THE COURTS—HISTORY MADE: The Senate confirmed John Lee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last Wednesday. Lee, who has served as a U.S. District Court judge in Illinois since 2012, is the first Asian American judge to serve on the Seventh Circuit.
? HIGHLIGHTING UNEQUAL PAY: Aug. 31 marked the day average earnings for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women caught up to what white non-Hispanic men made in 2021, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) joined advocacy groups Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) in demanding pay parity.
- “It's unacceptable that in 2022, these gender and racial pay disparities still persist,” CAPAC tweeted. NHPI women made 60 cents to every white man’s dollar in 2021, according to EPIC.
2022 Watch
⚡ COMPETITIVE CALIFORNIA HOUSE CONTEST HEATS UP: In California’s newly redrawn 48th congressional district, which includes Orange County and Little Saigon, both Democrats and Republicans are accelerating efforts to court Asian Americans, who make up over a quarter of the district’s population. Incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel (R), a Korean American, will face off against Jay Chen, a former Navy lieutenant who is of Taiwanese descent, in November.
- “Asians vote for Asians” is becoming obsolete, writes the New York Times’ Stephanie Lai. The traditionally-held belief—that Asian Americans vote for other Asians, regardless of party—is quickly disappearing as more Asians join the ballot, particularly at local and regional levels. A record 158 Asians ran for state legislature in 2020, according to AAPI Data.
- Friction on the trail: Chen triggered a flurry of criticism after appearing to mock Steel’s accent at a campaign event in April when he claimed “you kind of need an interpreter” to understand her words. “My accent is my story,” Steel, who is the first Korean immigrant to hold congressional office, wrote in an opinion piece in response. Chen later claimed he was referring to Steel’s “convoluted talking points instead of the truth—not any kind of audible accent.”
END OF THE ROAD FOR MINNESOTA’S MAY LOR XIONG? St. Paul ESL teacher May Lor Xiong, who is campaigning to represent Minnesota’s 4th congressional district in the House, became the first Hmong American to win a GOP primary in August, receiving 44% of the vote compared to runner-up Jerry Silver’s 34%.
- The challenge ahead: Xiong is unlikely to defeat incumbent Rep. Betty McCollum (D), who has held the seat in the heavily blue district since 2001, Sahan Journal’s Aarushi Sen notes. Though Republicans have made inroads in recent years, Minnesota’s Hmong community has tended to vote Democratic.
- Remember… Mee Moua, a Democrat, became the country’s first Hmong American state legislator in 2001, serving in Minnesota’s state Senate until 2011.
? LOW TURNOUT IN GUAM DESPITE RECORD VOTER REGISTRATION: More than 58,000 people in Guam were registered to vote before this year’s primaries, according to Guam Election Commission Executive Director Maria Pangelinan. Just 40% of registered voters showed up to polls in August, the lowest turnout for a primary since 1972, reports the Guam Daily Post’s Phill Leon Guerrero.
- What's next: Incumbent Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero (D) and former speaker of the Guam legislature Judi Won Pat (D), who is running for Guam’s non-voting seat in Congress, are expected to win their respective races in November.
?️ ONE RACE TO WATCH—HAWAI‘I’S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Democrat and longtime Hawai‘i state lawmaker Sylvia Luke will face Republican Seaula Jr. Tupa‘i this November after both won their respective primaries with comfortable leads in a bid for the coveted spot of second-in-command—often a stepping stone to the governor’s post.
- FYI… As chair of the House Finance Committee, Luke is one of Hawai‘i's most powerful legislators and holds control over the state budget. Luke, who is Korean American, has led the field in fundraising, spending more than $1 million throughout the election season, writes Civil Beat’s Blaze Lovell.
AAPI Nation
? NUMBER OF THE WEEK—31: That’s the percentage of lower-income Asian women living in states with abortion restrictions, NBC News’ Sakshi Venkatraman reports. More than 362,000 Indian women reside in states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion and are the largest group of AAPIs affected by the overturning of Roe.
? Here's what else is happening across America…
Every public elementary and high school in Illinois will offer a unit on Asian American history this year, WTTW’s Eunice Alpasan reports. Illinois was the first state to mandate Asian American history in public school curriculum and has since been joined by New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
The Pentagon will completely defuel and permanently shut down the Navy’s underground Red Hill fuel tanks by early 2024, speeding up the timeline by five months, Honolulu Star Advertiser’s Sophie Cocke reports. The Navy announced plans to close the site after a fuel leak caused a widespread contamination crisis on O‘ahu. Many Native Hawaiians said the crisis reinforced their distrust of the U.S. military and encroached on their community’s sacred relationship with water.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins (D) recently announced that several high-profile criminal cases involving Asian victims will be re-examined for evidence to support hate crime charges, Claire Wang of NBC News reports. Nancy Tung, a Chinese American Bay Area prosecutor who ran for DA in 2019, will lead the investigation.
The American Samoa government argued against birthright citizenship in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court in August, Law360’s Rae Ann Varona reports. The government says the change would take away American Samoans’ right to decide their own political status.
- From the archive: Three American Samoa-born Utah residents had asked the high court to take up the case after a circuit court ruled that Congress—not the courts—has the authority to determine whether people born in the territory should automatically become U.S. citizens.
One of the last survivors of Japanese American incarceration site Camp Amache, Ken Kitajima, passed away last week, the Denver Post’s Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton reports. The Colorado incarceration camp housed more than 10,000 Japanese Americans throughout its three years of operation. Kitajima, who died at 91, served in the Air Force during the Korean War and pushed for the federal government to designate Camp Amache a historic site.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is working with federal partners, American Samoan officials, and local residents to monitor earthquakes in the Manuʻa Islands of American Samoa. The small but frequent earthquakes, beginning in late July, are “likely associated with magmatic activity beneath the islands,” according to the USGS.
AAPI beneficiaries are reporting severely subpar patient satisfaction and limited access to proper health care, NPR’s Rae Ellen Bichell reports. People of color consistently reported worse experiences in access to needed care, access to a personal doctor, timely access to a checkup or routine care, and timely access to specialty care, according to Kevin Nguyen, a health services researcher at Brown University School of Public Health.
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