Vice President Joe Biden knows that the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is a core chapter of the American story.
President Trump continues to inflict significant damage to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. In addition to failing to take the coronavirus seriously and jeopardizing jobs and the economy, he has put the AAPI community’s access to health care at risk, allowed hate crimes to flourish, and rolled back critical environmental protections. He has: Here are Joe’s priorities for the AAPI community. See his agenda more in detail below:
Sabotaged the health care of Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Asian Americans are 1.3 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than whites, yet Trump is still trying to take away their access to health care. He is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, even though it cut the uninsured rate for Asian Americans in half and the uninsured rate among Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders by more than a third between 2013 and 2017. As many as 121,000 young AAPIs gained coverage by staying on their parents’ health insurance plan until age 26. Millions of AAPIs became free of lifetime limits and gained access to no-cost preventive services thanks to the ACA.
Stoked anti-Asian sentiment in an attempt to deflect blame for his failed coronavirus response, which has disproportionately harmed Asian Americans. Trump has repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.” As a result, discrimination against Asian Americans surged during the coronavirus pandemic.
Threatened the economic security of AAPI families. The unemployment rate for Asian Americans has more than quadrupled since this time last year, and more than half of Asian American families (57%) have lost employment income since March. Also, more than 15% of Asian American renters missed last month's payment. This crisis has also harmed Asian American small businesses throughout the country.
Sided with large corporations polluting our air and water without consequence. The climate crisis continues to threaten AAPI communities, particularly the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community. Certain islands may become uninhabitable by 2030 without immediate action. Two states with the highest percentage of AAPIs—Hawaii and California—remain vulnerable to the risks from climate change. Trump has not only failed to address this crisis, but outright denied it. He has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord, rolled back regulations designed to limit pollution, stripped protections from more than 30 million acres of public lands and waters, and overseen a substantial reduction in enforcement of laws designed to make our air and water cleaner.
Threatened the ability of AAPI families to unite and stay together. Trump supported the RAISE Act, which would dramatically reduce pathways for legal immigration, including cutting family-based immigration by reducing the types and number of sponsorships available. In addition, Trump has targeted Dreamers by attempting to rescind DACA — which could tear apart countless AAPI families, who are woven into the fabric of our communities.
