Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Community
Our nation and our district are stronger because of our diversity. As the first Chinese American Congresswoman, it is an honor to represent California’s 28th District, which is home to the fourth-largest Asian American and Pacific Islander population in the country.
Following in the footsteps of leaders like Norm Mineta, Robert Underwood, Patsy Mink, and Mike Honda, I was proud to serve as Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), for 14 years, allowing me to advocate for the needs of our communities in Congress. When I was first elected, there were only nine AANHPI Members of Congress. Today, there are a record 25 AANHPI Members of Congress, alongside 83 Members of CAPAC, a historic high.
During my tenure as Chair, CAPAC led efforts to expand health equity, educational access, immigration reform, civil rights protections, data disaggregation, and language access. I am proud to continue this work as Chair Emerita of CAPAC.
As President Trump continues to attack diversity, equity and inclusion, I will continue to stand with our AANHPI communities and fight back against these hateful attacks.
Combatting Anti-Asian Hate
During the coronavirus pandemic, Asian American communities faced a surge in stigma, prejudice, and violence, fueled largely in part by rhetoric from leaders like Donald Trump, who used racial slurs like ‘China virus' and ‘Kung Flu' to refer to COVID-19. In 2021, anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents increased by 339 percent, including the horrific shootings at three Asian-owned spas in Georgia that claimed eight lives, six of whom were Asian women. This tragedy shocked the nation and brought national attention to the fear and trauma experienced by Asian Americans throughout the pandemic.
I am proud of CAPAC’s strong, visible fights against anti-Asian hate, including passage of the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law. This law allows the Department of Justice to better monitor and prosecute hate crimes, and includes language from my NO HATE Act, which helps to improve local law enforcement's response capacity. It is vital that hate crime victims know where to turn and have confidence that they will be heard, believed, and helped.
I will continue to fight against all forms of hate and discrimination, including the racial profiling of Chinese Americans. During his first term, President Trump launched the Department of Justice’s “China Initiative” program, which purported to target espionage but instead disproportionately targeted and profiled individuals of Chinese descent. I heard directly from innocent scholars about how these baseless investigations ruined their careers and how they were targeted solely because of their Chinese ancestry.
Although the Biden Administration ended this program, President Trump and House Republicans have threatened to start this initiative again. I was proud to lead CAPAC when Republicans attempted to reconstitute the China Initiative in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act of 2025 (H.R. 5893) which funds the Departments of Commerce, Justice and other science-related programs. We successfully stopped the program’s reimplementation and will remain vigilant to ensure that this xenophobic program is not resurrected.
Additionally, I am proud to lead the fight against discriminatory “Alien Land Laws,” which prohibit Chinese American immigrants from owning a home, under the guise of stopping China from owning American land. We had not seen such land laws since the racist anti-Asian laws of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and yet, in recent years, 25 states have passed 49 bills that restrict foreign property ownership. That is why Representative Al Green and I introduced the Preemption of Real Property Discrimination Act, which would preempt at the federal level state laws that prohibit or otherwise restrict the purchase of real property of an individual based on their country of citizenship. We will continue to call these land laws what they are: anti-immigrant, Anti-Asian, and shameful.
Language Access
More than 25.7 million individuals in the United States –over 8% of the U.S. population – have limited English proficiency (LEP) and rely on language translation and interpretation services to access vital public services and institutions, including health care, the legal system, education, housing, and employment. Over 30% of the Asian American community has LEP, with disaggregated data showing this number can reach up to 65% for some subgroups.
On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that attempts to make English the Official Language of America. In July 2025, his Attorney General Pam Bondi issued orders to remove all multilingual language accessibility services in the federal government and directed agencies to consider English Only Services.
I have led several oversight letters demanding answers on the implementation of Trump’s executive order and highlighting the importance of language access. Stories from communities nationwide, including in California, Kentucky, New Mexico, and New York, prove that translation and interpretation services can mean the difference between life and death. For 25 years, since President Clinton, both Democrat and Republican presidents have supported translations of essential materials in our federal government. Taking this away goes against what America stands for as a land that was built by immigrants. I began my career fighting back against the English-only movement in my hometown of Monterey Park and will not stand for this continued xenophobia in Congress.
Recognizing AANHPI History
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first law to explicitly prohibit a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States. It marks one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history, and its legacy continues to impact Chinese Americans today. As one of the most discriminatory laws ever enacted by Congress, the Chinese Exclusion Act tore families apart, established a permanent underclass of Chinese immigrants who were denied citizenship and voting rights, and prolonged the harmful myth of Asian Americans as ‘perpetual foreigners’ that endures to this day. My own grandfather, who arrived in the U.S. in 1904, was denied citizenship and the right to vote for more than 30 years because of this law. That is why in 2012, I was so proud to have led H. Res 683, a resolution that formally expressing regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act, which passed the House and Senate unanimously. H. Res 683 was only the fourth resolution of regret in the past 25 years to be passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress. As we reflect on this shameful history and look to the future, we must continue to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, so that history does not repeat itself.
For too long, the AANHPI community has been invisible in our history books and museums. As CAPAC Chair, I was proud to work with Congresswoman Grace Meng to shepherd the passage of H.R. 3525, a historic law that established the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, the first step in creating a permanent Smithsonian Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. Asian American history is American history, and I look forward to the day when our community can see its stories fully represented in our nation’s capital.