US to give spouses of H-1B visa holders automatic work permits; here’s how it will help Indians
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Nearly a lakh Indian spouses of H-1B visa holders, who have employment authorisation documents, will be able to auto-extend their employment authorisation by a maximum of six months. There’s excellent news for spouses of L-1 visa holders as well.
In a decision that will benefit lakhs of Indian-Americans, the United States has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to the spouses of H-1B visa holders. A significant beneficiary of the H-1B visas in the US are Indian IT professionals.
The move will make the employment extension process simpler for the spouses of H-1B holders, thereby directly benefiting Indians.
The decision, however, has not come voluntarily from the Joe Biden administration. The American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA), on behalf of immigrant spouses, had filed an action-class lawsuit in March. On November 11, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington directed the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — the immigration arm of Department of Homeland Security — to allow spouses of H-1B visa holders automatic extension of their work permit.
“This (H-4 visa holders) is a group that always met the regulatory test for an automatic extension of EADs (employment authorisation documents), but the agency previously prohibited them from that benefit and forced them to wait for reauthorisation,” AILA’s Jon Wasden was quoted as saying in a report by news agency PTI.
AILA said the agreement between the parties is a “giant achievement” and will result in a landmark policy shift for USCIS, which has now recognised that L-2 spouses enjoy automatic work authorisation status.
L-2 visas are given to the spouses of L-1 visa holders, while spouses of H-1B visa holders get H-4 visas. Nearly a lakh Indian spouses of H-1B visa holders, who have EADs, will be able to automatically extend their employment authorisation by a maximum of six months.
The L-1 and L-2 visa holders are highly-paid individuals, but require work permits which take a long time to process. A big population of these visa holders are Indian women. The lawsuit was filed by a group consisting of a majority of Indian nationals.
Once the court order gets implemented, the L-1 and L-2 visa holders would no longer need to apply for work permits or require EADs as proof to work in the United States.
During the Barack Obama administration, work authorisation permits were granted to specific categories of spouses of H-1B visa holders. The US has so far given work authorisation permits to 90,000 H-4 spouses, most of whom are Indian-American women.
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The findings of the study are based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,200 Indian American residents in the United States.
They left their homeland – India – many, decades ago. Or perhaps, just recently. They came directly to America from cities across India – or perhaps via Hong Kong, Europe or Uganda. They left thriving livelihoods – or came in search of new ones. They might be immigrants from scattered parts of India – or the American-born children of those very migrants.
Back in 1911, a special commission established by the US Congress declared that the earliest of this community was “universally regarded as the least desirable race of immigrants thus far admitted to the United States.” Flash forward over the years to a century later and you find Indians are now one of the most successful and fastest-growing communities.
Today they number 4.8 million in America and are an important part of the fabric of the country. They are the Indian-Americans though they go by many names given to them over the years – South Asians, Asian-Americans or even just plain American. In India, they are also known as NRIs or non-resident Indians, and at heart, many of them regard themselves as desi or Indian.
Devesh Kapur
A new study on the Indian American community, which draws on the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS) puts this community under the microscope and documents some intriguing statistics about them: The study is coordinated by Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, John Hopkins University and Penn State University and is based on a paper by Sumitra Badrinathan, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University; Devesh Kapur, the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and director of Asia Programs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Johnathan Kay a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow in the Carnegie South Asia Program and Milan Vaishnav, Director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program.
Milan Vaishnav
The findings of the study are based on a nationally representative online survey of 1,200 Indian American residents in the United States—the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS)—conducted between September 1 and September 20, 2020, in partnership with the research and analytics firm YouGov.
Several thought leaders spoke at a virtual event ‘Social Realities of Indian Americans” which was co-hosted by Carnegie Foundation and The Asian American Foundation (TAAF).
“When I first immigrated to the country, if we saw an Indian person at a grocery store, regardless of shape, size, color, if we figured out that they were Indian, they were somehow over at our house for dinner within three days and then the kids are playing together and we’re family friends for the next decade,” recalled broadcast journalist Hari Sreenivasan in this discussion, and it’s a sentiment many immigrants will recall in their own lives.
Sumitra Badrinathan
“Now fast forward 5, 10, 25 years and you see Indian-Americans all over the place. We also see the infrastructure has split along regional lines, along linguistic lines, and all of a sudden these tiny things that used to be differences in India are now also differences in the US.”
Discussing many aspects of the community, Milan Vaishnav noted that while the overall professional, educational and financial success of the Indian American community is undisputed, there is a lot of variation and an incredible amount of inequality. The socio-economic characteristic, he says, “has not inoculated them in any way from the forces of discrimination, polarization and frankly contestation over these very basic questions of identity.”
Indeed, what this study showed is the many nuances and differences within the Indian population which is more of a mosaic rather than a homogenous whole.
According to the study, Indian Americans who are born in the United States are more likely to identify as Indian American (48 to 40 percent) and markedly less likely to identify as Indian (just 11 percent compared to 33 percent of foreign-born Indian Americans). Second-generation Indian Americans born in the United States are more likely to embrace the terms South Asian-American, Asian-American, and the non-hyphenated American.
The study reveals interesting data about the lifestyle and culture of the Indian-American community, and even the differences within the community, depending on the place of birth and generational differences. Unlike many other American communities, Indian-Americans tend to marry within the community. While eight out of ten respondents have a spouse or partner of Indian origin, U.S.-born Indian Americans are four times more likely to have a spouse or partner who is of Indian origin but was born in the United States.
Religion is an important part of the lives of Indian-Americans but religious practice varies. While nearly three-quarters of Indian Americans state that religion plays an important role in their lives, religious practice is less pronounced. Forty percent of respondents pray at least once a day and 27 percent attend religious services at least once a week.
Another fact is that roughly half of all Hindu Indian Americans identify with a caste group. According to the study, foreign-born respondents are significantly more likely than U.S.-born respondents to espouse a caste identity. The overwhelming majority of Hindus with a caste identity—more than eight in ten—self-identify as belonging to the category of general or upper caste.
In matters of political engagement, citizens are more likely to be involved with civic life and: U.S.-born citizens report the highest levels of engagement, followed by foreign-born U.S. citizens, with non-citizens trailing behind.
In social life, even though Indians are living in America, their social communities tend to revolve around people of Indian origin. The study found that Indian Americans—especially members of the first generation—tend to socialize with other Indian Americans.
“Polarization among Indian Americans reflects broader trends in American society. While religious polarization is less pronounced at an individual level, partisan polarization—linked to political preferences both in India and the United States—is rife,” noted the study. Democrats were uncomfortable having close friends who are Republicans and this was also true of Congress Party supporters vis-à-vis supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The study further noted that to some extent, divisions in India are being reproduced within the Indian American community: “While only a minority of respondents are concerned about the importation of political divisions from India to the United States, those who identify religion, political leadership, and political parties in India as the most common factors.”
At a time of racial tension in the country, Indian Americans also encounter discrimination. The study also cited that one in two Indian Americans reports being discriminated against in the past year, with discrimination based on skin color being the most common form of bias.
“We have a huge opportunity here to appreciate and to build America and to write the Asian-American story as part of the American story, understanding the Indian-American community and the social realities of Indian Americans,” said Sonal Shah, President of The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) in the panel discussion. Indians and all Asian-Americans are often made to feel like perpetual foreigners, she said, adding, “We are not perpetual foreigners. This is America, this is what America looks like, and this is how we are going to contribute to America.”
Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who blogs at Lassi with Lavina.
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India on their minds: Indian-Americans come together in support of their homeland
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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You can take the Indian out of India – but you can never take India out of the Indian.
You can take the Indian out of India – but you can never take India out of the Indian. The recent Covid-19 crisis in their homeland has galvanized Indian immigrants and their American-born children to action. For many, their hearts are in India since so many extended family members are caught in the eye of the storm. Every day there is news of deaths close to home, of real people dying unnecessarily; there are funeral pyres burning without the farewell of friends and family members.
Indian-Americans have responded in a big way, and now there are so many of them in power positions in the civic and political life that their voices have made a big difference in the US support for India, be it in raw materials for vaccines, oxygen or devices. Kamala Harris, with her roots in India, has spoken evocatively about the India situation.
US Reps. Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Raja Krishnamoorthy all appealed to the Biden Administration to India, as have several Indian-American organizations and noted civil servants. As Khanna told the Nation: “It’s vital that the US drop barriers to vaccine production and aid Covid-ravaged India. We aren’t an island. I mean, the disease is going to continue to come back to us.”
Indeed, India seems to have a lot of friends in high places. The India Senate Caucus co-chairs Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, along with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the Administration to take additional steps to help India combat the surge.
The Biden Administration has recognized the close connections and partnership with India, noting that “Reflecting the United States’ solidarity with India as it battles a new wave of COVID-19 cases, the United States is delivering supplies worth more than $100 million in the coming days to provide urgent relief to our partners in India.”
The US is providing oxygen support with an initial delivery of 1100 cylinders which will remain in India to be repeatedly refilled at local supply centers with more expected. According to the White House the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also locally procured oxygen cylinders and will deliver them to support hospital systems in coordination with the Government of India. Also included are oxygen concentrators, oxygen generation units, personal equipment and vaccine manufacturing supplies which will allow India to make 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Therapeutics and Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) are on the list along with public health assistance and collaboration with US CDC experts.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi announced that the City will tap into its stockpile to send COVID-19 test kits, swabs, ventilators, and pulse oximeters to India. “We should publicly share all research, technology, and techniques for producing the COVID-19 vaccines. Our city, home to thousands of Indian-born New Yorkers, and our country have a moral imperative to demonstrate global solidarity in order to overcome this devastating pandemic.”
The dire situation has galvanized NGOs and corporations, big and small, across America. Indiaspora opened ChaloGive.org giving platform with an initial $ 1 million from their private donor network. Indiaspora’s founder M.R. Rangaswami, who lost a sister to COVID, said: “COVID has hit everyone on a personal basis. I’m treating this as a personal emergency as well as a call to action.”
Indiaspora also held a fundraiser Help India Breathe which brought together several noted names from the Indian and AAPI community, including Lilly Singh, Deepak Chopra, and Jay Sean. More than $1M was raised during the fundraiser event, with both Indiaspora and Vinod Khosla matching each dollar raised up to $1 million, effectively tripling the impact of those who gave, and collectively raising more than $3M together.
“The scale and magnitude of the situation in India is currently beyond any one person or any one group’s ability to tackle,” said Ashish Shah, Senior Director, Philanthropy and Community Engagement at Indiaspora. “We need the force of our entire Diaspora behind COVID-19 relief efforts in India so that we can make the biggest impact possible.”
Indeed, various organizations have been instrumental in rallying the troops – Pratham has procured 7000 oxygen concentrators and is coordinating with local organizations to distribute these to Indian hospitals and Covid care facilities. On May 14, directors of USA Pratham are discussing the COVID crisis in India online with Dr. Managala Narasimhan, Senior VP and Director of Critical Care Services at Northwell Health.
The American India Foundation (AIF) has dispatched oxygen concentrators to India via FED EX and Air India flights and these are being sent to various hospitals across India. AIF has received over $8.9 million from Mastercard to help an estimated 2.5 million people gain access to healthcare. According to AIF, this is the largest gift it has received and it will be used to create portable hospitals in the areas of greatest need across the country. The organization is scoping locations for several portable hospitals with a goal of constructing 2500 such units.
Tata Memorial Centre distribution team at the Mumbai airport receiving a shipment from AIF
Vikas Khanna, the noted chef, who earlier headed the massive FeedIndia Campaign during the first wave of Covid-19, providing rations during the quarantine, has now partnered in a creative and ambitious undertaking with the NGO Vibha and various corporations to work in over 40 hospitals, healthcare facilities and partner organizations in India. A partnership with Texas Instruments and the Government of Karnataka has set up a 100 bed hospital in Bengaluru, and vaccination clinics are being planned.
Vikas Khanna and Keyur Shah of Vibha promoting Covid relief for India in Times Square.
Says Keyur Shah, Director of Vibha: “While we may all have views regarding what went wrong causing the second wave in India, we at Vibha are focusing on how to make it right. Currently, we are laser focused on this relief operation. We have raised over $700k with a goal to reach a million dollars.”
Volunteers from Vibha getting packages ready
America-based NGOs which have a footprint in India are reaching out to afflicted communities in the states and cities. Many of these groups are focusing on the local communities where they already work and so are able to address their needs during this crisis.
Children’s Hope India (CHI) is a nonprofit run by women professionals in New York, dedicated to the education of underserved population. It is reaching out to hard-hit communities in Jodhpur, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal and Bengaluru. “The scope of our COVID relief is individualized to each community where our projects are located, as the need in each community is different,” says Dr. Dina Pahlajani, president of CHI. The CHI Relief Program has provided oxygen concentrators, medical kits and PPE equipment; it has set up makeshift hospitals in rural Pune and in a school in Bhopal, with triage stations where patients can isolate from crowded family homes and get medical treatment. CHI is also providing vaccination camps, meals and financial support to affected families while continuing education programs through remote learning.
Children’s Hope India providing COVID relief to local communities.
Young Indian-Americans, many who may never have been to India and their American friends are reaching out on social media with their heart-felt small donations. No Indian-American has been left untouched by the escalating crisis in India – social media is full of tributes and photographs of lost family members and friends. Just today morning there was a poignant personal tweet from Dr. Celine Gounder, who is on the Biden Covid 19 Advisory team:
“Mourning the loss of another family member to COVID.”
“Why the World Should Worry About India” is a searing article in The Atlantic by Yasmeen Serhan who observes that the world’s largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge and that is everyone’s problem. “India’s outbreak is an enormous tragedy for its own people, but it’s also a catastrophe for the rest of the world,” she wrote. “Ninety-two developing nations rely on India, home to the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for the doses to protect their own populations, a supply now constrained by India’s domestic obligations.”
Indeed, before its vicious second wave of COVID-19, India was itself providing vaccines to so many countries. Barbados is one of the countries which had gratefully vaccinated their people, thanks to India’s generosity. The hope is that the world is able to respond to India’s crisis in a timely fashion and the tide can be turned, with a better outcome for the entire globe.
—Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who blogs at Lassi with Lavina.
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OCI cardholders will now be required to get their document re-issued only once at the age of 20 instead of multiple times needed to be done currently, according to the Indian Union Home Ministry.
Indian-Americans have welcomed the Indian government’s decision to simplify the process of maintaining Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards, saying more overseas citizens will now opt for this form of residency.
OCI cardholders will now be required to get their document re-issued only once at the age of 20 instead of multiple times needed to be done currently, according to the Indian Union Home Ministry.
”This will remove the confusion to many OCI cardholders on the process of renewing the card at the age of 20 and 50 and one doesn’t have to go through the whole OCI card renewal process again,” Dr Thomas Abraham chairman of the Global organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) told.
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Path to NASA started way back watching Star Trek as a child, Indian-American Swati Mohan tells Biden
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Mohan was also the first to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the Martian surface after surviving a particularly tricky plunge through the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
Indian-American aerospace engineer Swati Mohan, who played a key role in the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface, told President Joe Biden on Thursday that her path to the US space agency began when she watched the first episode of Star Trek as a child. Mohan leads the guidance, navigation, and control operations of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. She played a pivotal role in landing the US space agency’s historic Perseverance rover on the Martian surface on February 18.
Mohan was also the first to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the Martian surface after surviving a particularly tricky plunge through the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
Mohan, who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old, said her path actually started way back when she was a child, watching the popular TV show Star Trek. ”In addition to those fantastical scenes of space, what really captured my attention was this really close-knit team which was working together, manipulating this technological marvel with the sole purpose of exploring space and understanding new things and seeking new life,” Mohan told Biden during a virtual interaction.
President Biden on Thursday congratulated the NASA team responsible for last month’s successful landing of the six-wheeled rover on Mars and for giving the country a ”dose of confidence” at a moment when the nation’s reputation as a scientific leader has been tattered by the coronavirus pandemic. Biden speaking in a video conference call with the leadership of the space agency’s jet propulsion laboratory team expressed awe over the landing of Perseverance.
Interacting with Biden, Mohan said, ”You know, Perseverance is my first mission at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), where I’ve gotten to work from the very beginning of formulation, all the way through operations, and it made me feel like I was part of that crew. Being able to work with this incredibly diverse, talented team that has become like a family, spending years creating our own technological marvel has been a privilege.”
”Those last days and weeks leading up to landing day, it was pretty smooth, but we were all still really nervous and, frankly, terrified until we got through those final seven minutes. To be able to call touchdown safely, to see those first images come back from Mars, to see the place where we have never been able to go to on Mars before and go there — reach there for the express purpose of seeking out new life just made it feel like I was living in a dream,” said the Indian-American engineer.
”Now that tremendous relief has passed for the team of being able to be there safely, all that’s left is the excitement and the thrill of all the scientific discoveries that are yet to come and what Perseverance can actually find — and hopefully find those signs of past life on Mars,” Mohan said.
Biden in response praised Mohan and other NASA scientists for the landing of Perseverance on Mars. ”I tell you what, you said you feel like you’re ’living a dream’ — you’ve created a dream for millions and millions of young kids, young Americans. You talk about STEM. You — it was — look, the thing that I found so exhilarating about this: You all did this — the whole team — the team I can see now and the entire team at JPL — what you did: You restored a dose of confidence in the American people,” Biden said.
”They were beginning to wonder about us. They were beginning to wonder: Are we still the country we always believed we were? You guys did it. You guys gave a sense of ‘America is back.’ It’s — it’s astounding what you did. You should not underestimate it. You should not underestimate it,” the President asserted. ”You did it the most American way: You believed in science, you believed in hard work, and you believed there wasn’t a darn thing you couldn’t do if you put your minds together. One of the reasons why we’re such an incredible country is we’re such a diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the world here in the United States of America, and we give people an opportunity to let their dreams run forward,” Biden said.
”Everyone was so down the last years about: Is America still the — fount of change? And are we still the country that has hopes and develops and pursues the most unlikely things to happen? And we are. And you all demonstrated it. I really mean this. It’s so much bigger than landing Perseverance on Mars. It’s about the American spirit, and you brought it back. You brought back in a moment we so desperately need it,” he observed.
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Indian-Americans taking over US, says Biden as they keep getting key positions
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Biden, who was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, has created history by appointing at least 55 Indian-Americans to key positions in his administration.
Indian-Americans are taking over the country, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, referring to the high number of people from the community getting a place in his administration. In less than 50 days of his presidency, Biden has appointed at least 55 Indian-Americans to key leadership positions in his administration ranging from his speech-writer to the NASA, to almost every wing of the government.
”Indian-of-descent Americans (sic) are taking over the country. You (Swati Mohan), my Vice President (Kamala Harris), my speech-writer (Vinay Reddy),” Biden said in a virtual interaction with NASA scientists who were involved in the historic landing of Perseverance landing at Mars. Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan leads the guidance, navigation, and control operations of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.
Biden, who was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, has created history by appointing at least 55 Indian-Americans to key positions in his administration. This does not include Vice President Kamala Harris, which is an elected position, and Neera Tanden, who a day earlier withdrew her nomination from the position of Director of White House Office of Management and Budget. Nearly half of them are women and a sizable number of them are working in the White House. So far, the Obama-Biden administration (2009-2017) has the distinction of appointing the largest number of Indian-Americans in any administration, the previous Donald Trump administration was not lagging far behind as it appointed the first ever Indian-American with a cabinet rank and inside the National Security Council.
The Biden administration has for the first time appointed such a large number of Indian-Americans in the first 50 days of his administration. This past week, Dr. Vivek Murthy testified before a Senate Committee for US Surgeon General and Vanita Gupta is all set to appear for her confirmation hearing for Associate Attorney General Department of Justice. ”It is impressive to see how many Indian-Americans were ready to go into public service. There have been so many additions since we launched our Government Leaders list last month on Presidents’ Day. I am so proud to see our community is going from strength to strength!,” eminent Indian-American philanthropist and Indiaspora founder M Rangaswami told PTI.
While the community is disappointed that Tanden had to withdraw her nomination because of stiff opposition from the Republicans, Indian-American women have reached a new height in the Biden administration. Biden sought to speak with Swati Mohan, Guidance and Controls Operations Lead, Mars 2020. She is not a political appointee though. Indian-American women appointed by Biden include Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, State Department; Mala Adiga: Policy Director to Dr Jill Biden; Aisha Shah: Partnership Manager, White House Office of Digital Strategy; Sameera Fazili, Deputy Director, US National Economic Council (NEC); Sumona Guha: Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council, White House; and Sabrina Singh: Deputy Press Secretary, Vice President White House.
Shanthi Kalathil has been appointed as Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights, National Security Council, White House; Garima Verma has been named as Digital Director of the Office of the First Lady; Sonia Aggarwal as Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation; Office of Domestic Climate Policy, White House; Neha Gupta: Associate Counsel, Office of White House Counsel; and Reema Shah as Deputy Associate Counsel, Office of White House Counsel. Tanya Das has been appointed as Chief of Staff, Office of Science, Department of Energy; Shuchi Talati: Chief of Staff, Office of Fossil Energy, Department of Energy; Mini Timmaraju: Senior adviser to the director, Office of Personnel Management ; Sohini Chatterjee: Senior Policy Advisor US Mission to the United Nations, Aditi Gorur: Policy Advisor, US Mission to the United Nations; and Bhavya Lal is the Acting Chief of Staff, NASA.
Dimple Chaudhary has been appointed as Deputy General Counsel for Nationwide Resource Protection Programs, Environmental Protection Agency; Sharmistha Das is the Deputy General Counsel, Department of Homeland Security; Ruchi Jain is the Deputy Solicitor for General Law, Department of Interior; Meera Joshi is the Acting Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Administration, Department of Transportation; Aruna Kalyanam is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax and Budget, Department of the Treasury. ”We are thrilled that this administration reflects the diversity of America by including an unprecedented number of South Asians. The Biden-Harris administration’s inclusion of South Asians in key senior staff roles will undoubtedly inspire countless South Asians to aspire to public service and run for public office. This is a proud moment for our community,” Neha Dewan from South Asians for Biden told PTI.
Gautam Raghavan, Deputy Director in Office of Presidential Personnel; Bharat Ramamurti, Deputy Director of National Economic Council; Tarun Chhabra, Senior Director for Technology and National Security at National Security Council White House; Vedant Patel, Assistant Press Secretary President at the White House are among several other Indian-Americans who got key posts in the Biden administration.
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20 Indian-Americans in top roles for Biden’s administration: Here’s who they are
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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The stage is all set for Joe Biden’s oath ceremony today, where he will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
The stage is all set for Joe Biden’s oath ceremony today, where he will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. While the usual pomp and pageantry will be missing this time, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Capitol breach by a pro-Donald Trump mob, there is much to celebrate. After all, Biden’s administration would be the ‘most diverse in history’.
Biden’s administration diversity will see 20 Indian-Americans in top roles, apart from Kamala Harris, the first Indian-origin African-American, who will be taking charge as the country’s Vice-President. Harris, 56, is also the first woman in US history to occupy the coveted post.
Among the Indian-Americans to occupy top roles, 13 are women. While many other positions are yet to be filled up, this is a record feat for an ethnic community that makes for just 1 percent of the US population.
Of those 20, at least 17 are included in the presidential administration at the White House. The top names on the list are that of Neera Tanden, who has been nominated as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Dr Vivek Murthy as the US Surgeon General. Vanita Gupta has been chosen as Associate Attorney General Department of Justice.
Last week, the President-elect named former foreign service official Uzra Zeya as Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights. Mala Adiga will be Policy Director to soon-to-be First Lady Dr Jill Biden while Garima Verma has got the appointment as Digital Director of the Office of the First Lady. Sabrina Singh will work as the White House Deputy Press Secretary.
What’s more? Two officials with Kashmiri roots have also been named to assist Biden in administration — Aisha Shah as Partnership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy and Sameera Fazili as Deputy Director at the US National Economic Council in the White House. Bharat Ramamurti will also be part of the White House National Economic Council as its Deputy Director.
Making his return to the White House as Deputy Director in Office of Presidential Personnel will be Gautam Raghavan, who has earlier worked at the White House during Barack Obama’s presidentship. Vinay Reddy, who is considered Biden’s top confidant, will serve as Director of Speechwriting.
Vedant Patil will take charge as Assistant Press Secretary to Biden and is the third Indian-American to get this job.
Part of the all-important National Security Council of White House are three Indian-origin names —Tarun Chhabra as Senior Director for Technology and National Security, Sumona Guha as Senior Director for South Asia and Shanthi Kalathil as Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights.
The Office of the White House Counsel will have Neha Gupta as Associate Counsel and Reema Shah as Deputy Associate Counsel.
In two other key appointments, Sonia Aggarwal has been named Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation in the Office of the Domestic Climate Policy at the White House while Vidur Sharma will serve as Policy Advisor for Testing for the White House COVID-19 Response Team.
This is also the first time that the US President’s administration will have three more Americans with South Asian roots in prominent roles — Pakistani-origin Ali Zaidi as Deputy National Climate Advisor White House, Sri Lankan-origin American Rohini Kosoglu as Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President and Bangladeshi-origin Zayn Siddique as Senior Advisor to White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
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In Biden’s Justice League — Vanita Gupta’s new role at a challenging time in America
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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In this dark period, it was reassuring to have President-Elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris introduce Americans to their sterling choices for the Department of Justice, which has been battered by four years of Trump.
Even as the date of the Biden-Harris inauguration draws closer, there seems no end to the high drama of the elections with constant highs and lows. First came the high of the Georgia run-offs where the Democrats won both seats, giving the Biden Administration a majority in the Senate, vital to pass crucial legislation through.
Then on January 7 came the absolute low of an unruly mob of thousands of Trump supporters, instigated by the president, storming the iconic Capitol even as Congress members were tabulating the Electoral College votes. This seditious attack was a low point for American democracy with massive destruction, a lockdown in the Capitol, injuries, and five deaths.
A day later, the country is still shell-shocked by the potential danger of having Donald Trump in power for two more weeks and calls for a second impeachment or the 25th Amendment, which would remove him from office.
So in this dark period, it was reassuring to have President-Elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris introduce Americans to their sterling choices for the Department of Justice, which has been battered by four years of Trump:
Judge Merrick Garland, nominee for Attorney General, Lisa Monaco, nominee for Deputy Attorney General, Vanita Gupta, nominee for Associate Attorney General; and Kristen Clarke, nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
“Our first-rate nominees are eminently qualified, embody character and judgment that is beyond reproach, and have devoted their careers to serving the American people with honor and integrity,” said Biden in introducing his four justice fighters.
“They will use the full extent of their authority to move us closer to the American ideal of equal justice under the law — de-politicizing and rooting out systemic racism from our laws, restoring voting rights, prosecuting hate crimes, eliminating racial disparities in sentencing, ending mandatory minimums, and restoring trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve through reforms that make our communities safer.”
Indeed, Indian-Americans will be particularly excited to have Vanita Gupta on this elite team, for she has a long history of fighting for civil rights. “My parents were proud immigrants from India, an opportunity that was made possible by the civil rights movement and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act,” she says.
She will be the first woman of color to become the Associate Attorney General if confirmed. Currently, she is the President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s leading civil and human rights coalition.
She has consistently made news for her bold, fearless moves. In fact, her first case, fresh out of law school and working with the ACLU, changed the lives of 35 mostly blacks who had been convicted on cocaine possession charges and sentenced to 60-300 years. This was almost 10 percent of the 5000 population of the small town of Tulia in Texas.
She managed to have their convictions overturned and helped to negotiate a $ 6 million settlement for them, as well as have the drug task force responsible for this miscarriage of justice disbanded.
She was a staff attorney at the ACLU, ultimately becoming the Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice. While at the ACLU, she led the Smart Justice Campaign aimed at ending mass incarceration. She then worked for the Obama-Biden Administration, where she led the Civil Rights Division.
“At every step, with every case, she has fought for greater equity and to the right the wrongs in our justice system where they existed,” said Biden. “And she has done so by bringing people together, earning praise from across the ideological spectrum for her approach to solving some of the thorniest problems we face.”
During the Obama-Biden Administration, Gupta was put in charge of investigating abuse of power in police departments in Ferguson, Missouri, and other communities torn apart by acts of violence and racial injustice. She helped build equity and trust.
“She was commended for her work both by law enforcement and by those advocating for changes in the criminal justice system. That is a rare achievement — and it speaks volumes about her capacity to unite people in common purpose, which this is all about,” said Biden.
Gupta graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law. Still, her passion for civil rights and equality began much earlier – when she was just four years old!
“One day I was sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant with my sister, mother, and grandmother, and as we ate our meals, a group of skinheads at the next table began shouting ethnic slurs at us, throwing food at us until we had to leave the restaurant. It is an early memory, but one that is seared in my mind. That feeling never left me, of what it means to be made to feel unsafe because of who you are,” she recalled.
Yet there was something else that empowered and strengthened her. “I kept another feeling with me though, too, and that is one that has been ingrained in me by my parents and shared by my husband, whose family said fled violence and war in Vietnam and sought refuge on these shores. They believed more than anything in the promise of America and that loving this country brings with it the obligation to do the necessary work to make it better. Those two feelings for me converge in work ahead of us.”
America is beset with many challenges, and this Department of Justice will be able to once again bring law, order, and compassion into the equation. In her remarks, Gupta noted: “Yesterday’s horrific events at the Capitol reminded us that our democracy cannot be taken for granted, that our nation has a long history of disinformation – white supremacist violence, mob violence. It also reminded us that our values and our democracy do not protect themselves. It is people with courage who do that…it will not be enough to restore what has been undermined or lost – this moment demands bold leadership.”
As VP-elect Kamala Harris said of this potential brave new Justice league, “In the face of both the damage that has been done to our Justice Department and our country’s long-overdue reckoning on racial injustice, these are the right leaders to meet this moment.”
—Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who blogs at Lassi with Lavina. Read her columns here.
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President-elect Joe Biden had pledged that his team would look like the real America – and he is staying true to his word in thoughtfully selecting a cross-section of diverse, multiracial talent representing the country’s changing demographics. There are a number of Indian-Americans chosen for the new Biden-Harris administration.
Maju Varghese, who was the CEO and Senior Advisor in the Biden-Harris campaign, has been named as Executive Director for the U.S. Presidential Inauguration Committee, and will be handling the many cogs of this giant apparatus. He is the son of immigrants from Kerala and has been on the Biden team from the start. Earlier he had served in the Obama Administration.
Neera Tanden, president of the think tank Center for American Progress, has been nominated as Director of the powerful Office of Management and Budget, a cabinet post for which approval will be needed from the Republican-controlled Senate. Tanden is the daughter of Indian immigrants and would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian American to lead OMB. A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, Tanden received her Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA and her JD from Yale Law School.
Neera Tanden
She currently serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and had served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign.
Without a doubt, the devastation caused by the Covid-19 infection is the primary challenge facing the new administration as they try to bring normalcy to healthcare and the economy.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General under the Obama Administration, has been chosen for the same position in the Biden Administration. He is ‘America’s doctor’, and has held the rank of Vice Admiral of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. As co-chair of Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Board, he will advise Biden on the handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Vivek Murthy
Murthy came to America via England and was raised in Miami. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard, his masters in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine.
Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public health, having helped lead the national response to the Ebola and Zika viruses, the opioid crisis, and the effects of stress and loneliness on mental wellbeing.
Dr. Celine Gounder, who is on the Biden Transition Covid advisory taskforce, is the daughter of a French mother and Indian father from Tamil Nadu. She has a BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MD from the University of Washington.
Gounder is also a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, an internist and infectious disease specialist. Her father Raj Natarajan Gounder, who worked at Boeing, has been a source of inspiration to her and she’s set up a foundation in his village to facilitate education.
Another noted Indian physician on the Biden Covid-19 Advisory Taskforce is Dr. Atul Gawande. His parents, both doctors, came from Gujarat and Maharashtra to study medicine in New York and later practiced in Athens, Ohio. Gawande, who studied at Stanford and Oxford, is surgeon, author and entrepreneur. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is the founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. He is also chairman of Haven, where he was CEO from 2018 to 2020.
Gawande is the staff writer for The New Yorker and has written four New York Times best-selling books Gawande has also been staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1998. His thoughtful writing gives a whole new dimension to the world of healing and medicine.
Rohini Kosoglu, who is Sri Lankan-American, was named domestic policy adviser on Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ staff. She was the first South Asian woman to serve as Chief of Staff to a U.S. Senator and was notably the only Asian-American to serve in that role during her tenure. Later as Chief of Staff to Harris’ presidential campaign, Kosoglu managed and oversaw debate preparation, policy, communications, and operations for a team with over three-hundred staff with a $40 million budget. Kosoglu received a B.A. in English with Honors from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University.
Rohini Kosoglu
Even First Lady Elect Dr. Jill Biden has Indian-American talent on her team. Mala Adiga is her new policy director and has served as a senior advisor to Dr. Jill Biden and as a senior policy advisor on the Biden-Harris Campaign. A native of Illinois, she is a graduate of Grinnell College, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and the University of Chicago Law School.
There are also over 20 Indian-Americans in Biden’s transition team, including three who will lead agency review teams: Arun Majumdar on the Department of Energy transition team, Rahul Gupta on the Office of National Drug Policy team, and Kiran Ahuja on the Office of Personnel Management team.
Asian American voters. including Indian-Americans, played a major role in delivering Georgia to President-elect Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris. According to IMPACT, the Indian-American advocacy group, an additional 42,000 AAPI voters voted in 2020 over 2016 and more than 30,000 AAPI voters voted for the first time ever. Biden won Georgia by just over 14,000 votes in this close race.
The elections may be over but the big challenge now is winning the two runoff senate races in Georgia on January 5 because these will decide if the Biden-Harris Administration will be able to carry out all the economic and healthcare changes it needs to make. To engage the South Asian community, IMPACT has released a promotional video “Impact,” co-produced by Meena Harris and Brad Jenkins of Phenomenal and the Asian American Advocacy Fund of Georgia. It highlights the emerging political power of AAPI voters and features prominent South Asian luminaries and public figures like Rep. Pramila Jayapal as well as popular South Asian entertainers /influencers like Kumail Nanjiani, Mindy Kaling, and Padma Lakshmi.
“November’s election made clear the burgeoning power of Asian American voters. In many hotly contested races, Asian American voters were the difference-makers,” IMPACT Executive Director Neil Makhija says. “And the stakes now are just as great. In Georgia, where control of the Senate hangs in the balance, IMPACT will harness this emerging power to help ensure Asian Americans are energized and mobilized to turnout in record numbers again.”
Indeed, Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic both in Georgia and nationally so their impact will continue to increase. IMPACT has also launched the Brown Book initiative through which 350 resumes of skilled Indian-Americans have already been sent to the Biden transition team and Capitol Hill recruiters. Says Makhija, “Our government functions best when it reflects the rich diversity of our country – that doesn’t just mean in the candidates that represent us – it also extends to the staffers behind-the-scenes, who support our elected officials and help government agencies operate. People are policy.”
(Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who blogs at Lassi with Lavina. Read her columns here.)
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Indian-Americans make inroads in the US political landscape: Gains and Losses
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Summary
The big victory was getting the four desi representatives in the US Congress re-elected – Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi.
For Indian-Americans, 2020 has been quite a year in the political life of the country – they not only brought out the vote for the winning Biden-Harris ticket but have also won some considerable victories up and down the ballot. The big victory was getting the four desi representatives in the US Congress re-elected – Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, and Raja Krishnamoorthi. There had been hopes that a fifth representative would join them in Congress but Dr.Hiral Tiperneni of Arizona lost in a close election.
Over 70 Indian-American candidates had stood for public office and there were some losses and considerable gains too. Some of the winning candidates include Nima Kulkarni (KY State House, HD-40), Kesha Ram (VT, State Senate) Nikil Saval (PA, State Senate) Jeremy Cooney (NY, State Senate, SD-56), Kevin Thomas NY State Senate, District -6. Vandana Slatter (WA, State House District 48), Padma Kuppa (MI, State House 41), Jay Chaudhuri (NC, State Senate), Ravi Sandill (TX, 127th District Court Judge), Amish Shah (U.S., State House AZ-24), Jenifer Rajkumar (NY, State Assembly District 38), and Ranjeev Puri (MI State House, District 21). Their wins in the state and down-ballot races show that Indian-American politicians are working their way up, building muscle and embedding themselves in the local issues which matter most to ordinary Americans.
“We stand on the shoulders of so many hard-working Indian-Americans that came to the state, came to this country before, including folks like my parents,” Jay Chaudhuri, who was re-elected to the North Carolina State Senate, told a virtual panel organized by Indiaspora, a community organization. He pointed out that the Indian-American community was absolutely pivotal in battleground states like North Carolina and Georgia. “As we see more and more Indian Americans move to the state it’s absolutely critical that we invest in those communities because they tend to be concentrated not only just in the Research Triangle in Charlotte area but the suburban counties that are around those major metropolitan areas.”
Jay Chaudhuri with Kamala Harris
Chaudhuri was the first Indian-American elected – and now re-elected – to the NC legislature, and has worked for two decades in all three branches in state government. As Special Counsel to Attorney General Roy Cooper, Jay helped lead an investigation by all 50 Attorneys General that resulted in a landmark agreement with social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook, to protect children from Internet predators. As General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to State Treasurer Janet Cowell, he helped recover almost $100 million back to the pension and escheat funds. He also helped to establish the first-ever Innovation Fund, a $230 million fund to invest in businesses with significant operations in North Carolina. In the 2019-2020 session, Senate Democrats elected him as Minority Whip, the second-highest ranking position in the State Senate.
Indeed, Middle America is crucial to the battle for turning America blue as the support of battleground states is needed if the Biden-Harris Administration is to succeed in the tremendous health and economic challenges facing the country. Nima Kulkarni (KY State House, HD-40) had a light-hearted response to these dilemmas: “Welcome to Kentucky, the land of Mitch McConnell. I’m going to start off by apologizing to everybody for his re-election, but here we are, and I am still optimistic.” Kulkarni, who was born in India, is the first Indian to not only be elected but re-elected to the General Assembly by a whopping 80 percent in a red state in a sharply divided nation.
Nima Kulkarni
As she says, “What we need to remember, especially in my district which doesn’t have any Indian people – it’s a lot of white and black working-class families – what it’s about is how you are going to make their lives better.” Her district is a blob of blue in a sea of red, and she says, “If you’re able to talk to people, address their concerns, there’s a shot at getting people together at the table and having a conversation that doesn’t devolve into rhetoric and attacks.”
Padma Kuppa (MI, State House 41), who was endorsed by President Obama, fought a very tough race and prevailed in Michigan, a state that is changing demographically. She says, “I should first say that actually my win was declared with about 10 point lead – this is my first reelection. I flipped a district that had historically never been democrat before.” Kuppa’s area is in the suburbs, an area being remade by immigrants of all colors, but especially Indian-Americans. They have her ear when it comes to issues of concern like small business, affordable education, and H1B immigration.
Padma Kuppa
As she emphasizes, Michigan is the home of the middle class and working-class and immigrant families so issues of public education must be addressed at the state level. “We need to address public education and make sure that the kind of charter school landscape that we have here isn’t inequitable. Right now the quality of education that you get depending on your zip code is not acceptable to anyone in the immigrant community and I think that was something that resonated when I ran in my district.”
Can you win by losing? Dr. Vandana Slatter was first elected to the WA State House in 2018, the first Indian-American to win the election and she has just been re-elected with a resounding margin. Yet as she says she started her political career by losing. “My entrance into running for office actually started at the local level, when I was running for Bellevue City Council in 2013, and I lost that race. It was what I call my political MBA. I learned a lot about how to run for office and what that meant.”
Dr. Vandana Slatter
Slatter, who was born in British Columbia to Indian immigrant parents, immigrated to the US as a student. A Doctor of Pharmacy (UW), she has worked for the past twenty-plus years at leading biotechnology companies, including Amgen and Genentech, and is a licensed pharmacist in the State of Washington. All her many skills now serve her constituents facing the triple pandemics of Covid, racism, and economy.
She serves in a changing district which was earlier more conservative but is now bluer. (Bill Gates lives in the area and it is the home of tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and even Amazon is moving there.) About 40 percent of the population is ethnic in Bellevue so Slatter serves a diverse mix of people.
“Indian Americans are considered one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States and we are becoming a force on the political landscape. I think our elections are reflecting the fact that we do need to have a government that looks like us and reflects and represents our community,” she says. “It’s exciting for me to see that our community is starting to become part of that civic conversation because I think we have a lot to offer.”
Kesha Ram (VT Senate, Chittenden District), 34, became the first woman of color and the youngest woman ever in the VT State Senate. She has served four terms in the Vermont House of Representatives, where she too was the youngest to be elected.
Kesha Ram
“I was privileged with having Senator Kamala Harris in my life for a long time, as a native of California,” she says. “I grew up in my Indian immigrant father and Jewish-American mother’s Irish pub in Los Angeles, so having someone with her story just paved the way for me entirely.” Discussing the challenges of running for office and making a positive change, she emphasized the importance of taking risks and running for office even if there’s the possibility of losing.
In 2006, Kesha Ram got her start in politics when she introduced Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama at an event. Obama, then a senator, encouraged her to run and as she says, two years later they shared a ballot: he became the 44th President of the United States and she became the youngest legislator in the country!
Yet she emphasizes that one has to do the hard work to get there and there is no overnight success. Although only 5 percent of elected officials in the country are under the age of 35 but in Congress, over half of them started in politics under the age of 35. She says, “So you do have to look at getting in the game young, chipping away, building a base, building a network, and you have to do that across the board. Indians should get used to taking risks and losing. When I ran for statewide office and lost in 2016, someone pulled me aside and said when Bernie Sanders was your age, he got 2 percent – you got 17 percent. We have to remember it’s okay to risk and it’s okay to lose because in the end it all matters and gives a lot more young women and young people of color people to look up to.”
A powerful lesson to be learned from the success of these candidates is the truth that every public office is important – be it a school board, a city council or a state legislature. They are the building blocks of a working democracy and build strength with voters who are being served.
Padma Kuppa points out this anomaly: “What’s surprising to me is the fact that we don’t care about down-ballot. Somebody sailed in and is running for Congress, has never run for anything, hasn’t done anything in the district before, and we’re all interested in that particular candidate! I found in my first campaign that I was overlooked a lot of the time because I was running for a state seat and not a congressional seat, and I think that’s a challenge because what state legislators do is what affects people’s daily lives.”
For Indian-Americans who are structuring a future, down-ballot elections may indeed be the road to success in America’s political life.
(Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who blogs at Lassi with Lavina. Read her columns here.)
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Even as the date of the Biden-Harris inauguration draws closer, there seems no end to the high drama of the elections with constant highs and lows. First came the high of the Georgia run-offs where the Democrats won both seats, giving the Biden Administration a majority in the Senate, vital to pass crucial legislation through.
