Last week, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) issued two press releases. One was a joint statement with the TriCaucus - which is made up of CAPAC, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus - calling for renewed investment in to the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities. The other was a press release supporting President Obama's administration for its newly released policy prioritizing criminal immigrant deportations and allowing current deportation proceedings to be placed under case-by-case review.

Progressive APA community members know that persistent health disparities continue to afflict APA communities as well as all minority communities in the United States. A recent National Institutes of Health Study found that there are also disparities in the manner in which NIH grants are awarded to minority researchers, and that substantially more support and training are needed for researchers working to fix these disparities.

Excerpt from the press release: (Full Text)

Washington, D.C. — Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released the results of a study entitled, “Race, Ethnicity and NIH Research Awards.”  The study found that despite its current programs to increase the racial and ethnic diversity among its intramural and extramural biomedical and health services research workforce and grantee pool, there are serious and persistent racial and ethnic disparities in the manner in which NIH funding is awarded.

“The findings from this study – which are extremely alarming – raise serious questions about various NIH processes and review panels that should be objective and fair, in both intent and in outcome,” noted Congresswoman Donna Christensen, a physician and the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Health Braintrust.  “They also underscore the immediate need for the leadership at NIH to more demonstratively support, expand the authority of and increase funding allocated to the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to lead, evaluate, and coordinate racial and ethnic minority and health disparity research and training.”

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Progressive readers are also well aware of the fact that despite record-breaking support from immigrant communities and communities of color, under President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security has detained and deported record numbers of immigrants. The DHS's new policy is generally seen as a common-sense step towards justice and fairer treatment of undocumented immigrants. Fellow bloggers at APAP have already covered some of the nuances of this policy. Last week, "amoslim" wrote about the need to stop deporting same-sex couples under DOMA (http://www.apaforprogress.org/doma-deportations-could-stop-more-couples-making-headlines) and Misha wrote about how administrative relief is better, but not enough (http://www.apaforprogress.org/administrative-relief-immigrants-good-we-need-do-better).

Here are CAPAC Chair Representative Judy Chu and Chair Emeritus Representative Mike Honda on administrative relief:

Excerpt from Press Release (Full Text):

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-32), CAPAC Chair

"I commend President Obama and Secretary Napolitano's commitment to ensuring that deportation cases are evaluated in a comprehensive manner that, if implemented fully, will stop the deportation of Dream Act students and other non-criminal individuals.  When CAPAC met with senior White House officials last month, we pushed for comprehensive immigration reform and emphasized the need for full implementation of prosecutorial discretion in the handling of DREAM Act cases.  Today, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a positive step forward in implementing a new process that is both fair and just, and I am hopeful that these measures will set the tone for continued immigration discussions on this matter of significant importance to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community."

Rep. Mike Honda (CA-15), CAPAC Chair Emeritus

"As Chair of CAPAC’s Immigration Task Force, I welcome the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed actions as positive steps towards the goal of stopping the deportations of DREAM Act eligible individuals and other non-criminal immigrants.  As CAPAC board members discussed with Valerie Jarrett and other Senior Administration Officials at the White House last month, prosecutorial discretion, as clarified in the “Morton Memo,” must be fully exercised by all DHS personnel at every level.  With over 1.2 million Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) undocumented individuals in the United States, I am cautiously hopeful that these new measures will prevent immigrants with minor violations or no criminal history from being unnecessarily detained and separated from their families."  

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As the recess draws to a close and Congress returns to work, I'll keep up with CAPAC's latest updates and post them here at APA's for Progress. Remember, feel free to contact CAPAC members, especially if you live in their districts, about legislative actions you'd like to see them take to support APA communities!

About me: Hey, I'm Dayne, and I'm a recent graduate of Pomona College. In college, I was active in AAPI student organizing as well as community work. I'm currenlty based out of Washington, D.C., and I'll be posting two to three times a week with the latest in progressive and AAPI political news and policy analysis, as well as spotlight features on young community leaders. Leave comments and share with friends! Follow me on twitter @ dayne4progress