Made in America: Lindy Li, 24, seeks to be the youngest member of Congress

Lindy Li has won the endorsements of  

WATCH OUT, Lindy Li is running for Congress because ... why not? She's all of 24 years of age.

"The granddaughter of illiterate Chinese farmers is running for Congress," she exults proudly.

If elected, she would be the youngest representative in Congress. But the minimum age for Congress is 25, you say? Li has perfect timing, She will turn 25 this December and if she makes it to Nov. 2016 and wins, she'll be 26 when she is sworn in in January, 2017. At present, the youngest member of Congress is an ancient 30. That would be New York's Rep. Elise Stefanik. The average age of Congress is 57.

"There is going to be a lot of skepticism because of my age but patriotism, love of country, has no age," she was quoted by Princeton's web portal.

Li is running for a seat in Pennsylvania's 7th District, which includes Delaware County and other Philadelphia suburbs. It is an uphill battle in her bid to unseat 3-term incumbent Rep. Patrick Meehan, a Republican and former U.S. attorney. 


She immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 5-years old. She grew up here.

Her district is not a bastion of Asian/Americans, or even people of color, but that doesn't deter her. On her website, the slogan, "Made In America" blunts any xenophobia that may lurking out there. In a letter she wrote to voters in her district, she says:

America is a land of promise and new beginnings, a beacon for the rest of the world. Arriving with nothing but a suitcase of dreams, my family and I have spent fifteen years in beloved Pennsylvania. I became the woman I am today, walking its soothing slopes and reading beneath its gentle trees. That America welcomed us with nurturing arms is a debt that I can never fully repay, though my bid to serve you is the first step on a lifelong journey: to revive that “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” 

The 7th District is severely gerrymandered.

What does it say about who we are as a nation that the highest bidder so often prevails? We don’t elect our leaders to fundraise all day or to be sucked into the vortex of the perpetual campaign. We don’t elect them to serve special interests at your expense or to strategically posture in front of the hungry camera lens. Nor do we send them to Washington so they can grow rich in office, scaling the ladders of power. Rather, we seek leaders with integrity, moderation, and unwavering confidence, knowing that compromise is necessary in a democracy but unbending ideology is not. Herein lies the difference between a stateswoman and a politician.

I refuse to give up on our country and ask you to join me today as we breathe fresh life into the great American promise ...  I’m thankful that life has not been easy and that I’ve struggled for my American dream. Just as a tree can only grow as tall as its roots, so the measure of my ability is the measure of the challenges that I’ve overcome. ...

Being so young, this is her first try to run for a public office. Her previous experience was  getting elected as the class president, four-years straight, at Princeton University, where she graduated with a major in Philosophy. She quit her job on Wall Street to concentrate on her campaign.

It would be a mistake to discount her on the basis of her age or ethnicity. Li has already received endorsement and support from Democrats politicians, including former vice-president Albert Gore, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, since she announced the bid. If passion and energy won elections, Li would win in a landslide. But her lack of experience - political and real-life - may be her Achilles heel.

First, there is the Democratic primary in 2016 where she faces In  two other experienced Democrats: Mary Ellen Balchunis, a  political science professor who ran for the seat in 2014, and Dave Naples, a database administrator who was a write-in candidate for governor. 

Even if she is unsuccessful, she told an interviewer from the Washington Post, "Congressional elections are every two years." Lindy Li hates to lose.

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Anchor babies: The blowback continues

YOU KNOW you're in trouble when Donald Trump starts making fun of you for something you said. Trump wasted no time turning his attention on Jeb Bush, his rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

"In a clumsy move to get out of his 'anchor babies' dilemma, where he signed that he would not use the term and now uses it, he blamed ASIANS," Trump tweeted. Trump then wrote, a few minutes later, "Asians are very offended that JEB said that anchor babies applies to them as a way to be more politically correct to Hispanics. A mess!" 

For once, he was right.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tries to clear up his controversial statements about "anchor babies."

Bush, claimed birthright citizenship was “the specific case of fraud being committed where there’s organized efforts–and frankly it’s more related to Asian people–coming into our country.” This follows his earlier statement that the term "anchor baby," a derogatory term used to describe the children of undocumented immigrants, was not offensive. In his attempt to clarify his statement, he also said he is NOT for the abolishment of the 14th Amendment and the use of the birthright citizenship clause, which he called "noble."

Despite his awkward attempt to mollify the Latino American community by claiming he meant in reference to Asians. It didn't take long to get a reaction. Asians/Americans almost blew up the social media networks talking about Bush's statement. One student, Redondo High (California) student Jason Fong, started #MyAmericanStory which has taken off in the Twitterverse. AngryAsianMan.com and Reappropriate.com among others chimed in with scathing critiques.

The Organization of Chinese Associations – Asian Pacific American Advocates issued a statement condemning Bush’s comments.

“Our immigrant communities have consistently been painted as an invasion force and the use of the term ‘anchor baby’ is a clear example of this,” said Michael W. Kwan, OCA National President. 

“Governor Bush has now doubled down on his original insensitivity with the use of the derogatory term ‘Anchor Baby’ by characterizing ‘Asian People’ as a whole as non-citizens looking to take advantage of the system. This faulty rhetoric makes millions of law-abiding Asians a target for anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes, which will help spread the myth that Asian Americans are somehow less American than white Americans.”

Lawmakers in the 48-member Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) are “strongly condemning” former Bush for linking the derogatory term “anchor babies” to Asian immigrants.

On Monday, when told in Spanish that many Latinos consider the term “anchor babies” to be an offensive slur, Bush defended himself, saying that his critics should “chill out.” The GOP presidential candidate added, “Frankly, it’s more related to Asian people coming into our country, having children, and taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship.”

Bush’s comments come at a time when the Republican presidential candidates are taking on more extreme and anti-immigrant positions to describe undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump was the first candidate to fully embrace the term “anchor baby,” while Bush has maintained that it isn’t offensive and he’ll keep using it until someone gives him a better word.

Several members of Congress aren’t pleased that Bush is trying to downplay the offensive nature of the term, which suggests that undocumented immigrant parents use their U.S. born children as an “anchor” to prevent them from being deported, by pivoting to the Asian community.

“As the representative of the only Asian American majority district in the continental United States, and as a proud American of Japanese descent, I strongly condemn these statements,” CAPAC Chair Emeritus and Rep. Mike Honda told ThinkProgress in an emailed statement. Honda and his family were thrown into a Japanese internment camp while his father served in the U.S. military during World War II.

Honda also stated that he considered the language to be a “slur against all immigrants” and that “The 14th Amendment of our Constitution guarantees citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, and we cannot stand by and let anyone diminish that right.”

“In Silicon Valley – one of the most diverse areas of our country – we celebrate people from all backgrounds and their contributions to our nation. As the representative of the only Asian American majority district in the continental United States, and as a proud American of Japanese descent, I strongly condemn these statements.”


Rep. Mark Takano of Riverside, CA considers Bush’s remarks to be “offensive, whether he is referencing Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans.” He emailed statement to ThinkProgress, saying, “This type of language is being carelessly used by not just Governor Bush, but by a number of Republican presidential nominee front runners. The GOP needs to realize this is not about being politically correct. It is about treating American citizens with the respect they deserve.”

“No matter which ethnic group you’re referring to, ‘anchor babies’ is a slur that stigmatizes children from birth,” CAPAC Chair and Rep. Judy Chu said in a statement. Chu is the first Chinese/American women elected to Congress. “We need a conversation that leads to a solution on visas and naturalization and seriously considers how we can integrate the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants already living and contributing here. All that is accomplished through talk of anchor-babies — be they from Latin America, Asia, Europe, or Africa — is to use xenophobic fears to further isolate immigrants.”

“It doesn’t matter which community the term is applied to,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a California Latina, issued an emailed statement, “Throwing around dehumanizing insults is unworthy of those seeking our nation’s highest office. ”

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who came to the United States as a young child, tweeted tersely: “Really Jeb? This is still remarkably offensive and out of touch, regardless of which group you’re referring to.”

RELATED: Anchor babies: Bush targets Asians

The so-called “birth tourism” to which Bush tried to divert attention — in which immigrant women travel to the United States to give birth so their babies will have U.S. citizenship — does happen, though infrequently and shouldn't be used to muddle his original reference to anchor babies.

A  2009 Pew Research Center study said that about 350,000 children are born to families where at least one parent is undocumented. However, 61 percent of those parents arrived in the U.S. before 2004, 30 percent arrived from 2004 and 2007, and only 9 percent arrived from 2008 and 2010. U.S. citizens can only sponsor their parents at age 21, two decades of uncertainty for undocumented parents who could still be flagged for deportation. 

Asian immigrants in the United States have long been characterized as an invasive force or a menace to whites. Laws were passed denying citizenship was directed at Asians in the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the 19th century. Anti-Asian laws forbidding land ownership and inter-racial marriage were in the books up to the mid-20th century.* No matter how long we've been in America, Asian Americans have always been seen as foreigners, strangers and outsiders.

*UPDATE: Earlier versions of this post said that the Chinese were the only people denied U.S. citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court's Dredd Scott Decision denied citizenship to anyone of African ancestry - free man or slave.

Bush's gaff does nothing to correct that impression of foreigness among the fearful followers of Bush and the rest of the GOP presidential wannabes.

Ironincally, several years back, Bush warned the Republicans to engage the Asian American electorate. He said in 2013:

"Asian-Americans are actually the canary in the coal mine, I believe, for Republicans ... If we have lost connectivity to emerging voters, not because of our policies so much, but because we are not engaged in issues of importance to them, then I think we pay a price."

Right, Mr. Bush.

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Anchor babies: Bush switches target from Latinos to Asians

UH ... I guess we're supposed to feel better that presidential hopeful Jeb Bush's use of the term "anchor babies" is referring to Asian babies, not Latino ones.

What?!? Thank you, Jeb. I'm so relieved you cleared that up.

Over the weekend, Jeb got into trouble trying to match rival Donald Trump's outrageous statements on immigration supported perhaps abolishment or weakening of the 14th amendment. The Citizenship Clause of the amendment states:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Wong Kim Ark's 1898 passport photo.

Throughout the centuries, that clause has been widely interpreted to mean that if you were born in the U.S., you are automatically an American citizen, even if your parents are not.

Does Bush have advisors or is he making this up on his own? I guess he feels it's alright to insult Asians rather than Latinos. Perhaps, his wife had a good talking to him when he got home. As a Mexican/American, his wife was probably very offended with Bush's original use of the term.

He - and/or his staff - most likely is not aware of the history of the amendment and its why the Asian American community may be sensitive to any weakening of 14th Amendment.

Originally intended to put an end to the debate whether or not recently freed slaves were full-fledged American citizens, the 14th was widened to include all people in an 1898 case involving Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco and whose Chinese parents were not allowed to have citizenship because of the country's racist laws in effect at the time. 

The question of Wong Kim Ark's citizenship went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that “the amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born within the territory of the United States of all other persons (except children born to enemy aliens and diplomats), of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States.”

What Bush is referring to are the babies born to tourists from China in an illegal activity called "birth tourism." In most of those cases, the babies return to China with their mothers. Their hope is in the future, if things get dicey in China or the child wants to go to college in America, citizenship will make returning to the U.S. easier. Entering the U.S. on a tourist visa and giving birth is entering the U.S. on false pretenses by lying on your visa application. That violation shouldn't be lumped in with the children of undocumented parents, who are referred to with the derogatory term "anchor baby." 

At a campaign event in Colorado  today (Aug. 25) a voter asked Bush if he regretted "scapegoating" Asians by suggesting they are most at fault for entering the country illegally to give birth so that their children can be U.S. citizens.

"I was talking about a very narrowcasted system of fraud where people are bringing ... pregnant women in to have babies to have birthright citizenship," Bush answered.

Bush's backtracking on the use of "Anchor baby" was awkward and obviously an attempt to blunt the outrage from the Latino communities. All he's done is offend another constituency; a constituency, I might add, that has a faster rate towards citizenship (ie. new  voters) than any other immigrant group.

Thanks, Jeb, but, no thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

For the sake of irony! Enjoy and listen to the words.

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