South Asians grew 40% in the U.S. in just 7 years

By 2065, Asian Americans are on track to be the largest immigrant population in the U.S.  Much of that remarkable growth is driven by the South Asian population which grew a staggering 40% in seven years, from 3.5 million in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2017.

A new report reveals that the rise in asylum speakers and those detained by ICE goes beyond the U.S.-Mexico border and includes a growing number of South Asians.

There has been a rise in the number of South Asians seeking asylum in the U.S. over the last 10 years. ICE has detained 3,013 South Asians since 2017. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arrested 17,119 South Asians between October 2014 and April 2018 through border and interior enforcement.

The closer look at figures released by the U.S. Census was compiled in a report by South Asian Americans Leading Together. The South Asian demographic snapshot today, revealing a community in the U.S. that’s growing almost as fast as it is changing.

“As we witness this unprecedented growth in our communities, it is more important than ever that the needs of the most vulnerable South Asian populations are met," said SAALT’s Interim Co-Executive Director Lakshmi Sridaran.


The rise of the Indian American community has lifted that community to the second largest Asian American group in the past decade. Much of that rapid growth is due to new immigrants. 

The Chinese (except Taiwanese) population is the largest Asian group with 5 million, followed by Asian Indian (4.4 million), Filipino (4.0 million), Vietnamese (2.1 million), Korean (1.9 million) and Japanese (1.5 million). 

Some key demographic highlights include:

• The Nepali community grew by 206.6% since 2010, followed by Indian (38%), Bhutanese (38%), Pakistani (33%), Bangladeshi (26%), and Sri Lankan populations (15%).
• There are at least 630,000 Indians who are undocumented, a 72% increase since 2010.
• There are currently at least 4,300 active South Asian DACA recipients.
• Income inequality has been reported to be the greatest among Asian Americans. Nearly 10% of the approximately five million South Asians in the U.S. live in poverty.

"South Asians are impacted by the full spectrum of federal immigration policies – from detention and deportation to H-4 visa work authorization and denaturalization to the assault on public benefits," said Sridaran.

He pointed out the importance of ensuring of an accurate Census 2020 population count because Census data is used to determine the distribution of critical federal funding to provide services to certain communities. 

"A citizenship question on the census would chill thousands of community members, resulting in a severe undercount, with at least 600,000 South Asians in the country not being counted and thousands more deterred. And, this means even fewer resources to the communities who need it the most,” said Sridaran.

SAALT’s demographic snapshot is based primarily on Census 2010 and the 2017 American Community Survey. 

The South Asian community in the United States includes individuals who trace their ancestry to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The community also includes members of the South Asian diaspora – past generations of South Asians who originally settled in other parts of the world, including the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, Canada and the Middle East, and other parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands. South Asian Americans include citizens, legal permanent residents, students, H-1B and H-4 visa holders, DACA recipients, and undocumented immigrants.

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California gets five new AAPI judges

CALIFORNIA'S GOV. JERRY BROWN continues to diversify the state's judiciary with the appointment last Thursday (May 25) of five Asian/Americans to preside as judges in Superior Courts.


“It’s critical that our judiciary reflects our communities," said Assemblymember Rob Bonta, chair of the API Legislative Caucus. "As the fastest growing population in California, Asian Pacific Islanders have not been represented in appropriate numbers on the bench. This is a step in the right direction.”

The new judges are:

Benjamin T. Reyes

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  Benjamin T. Reyes' appointment to the Contra Costa County Superior Court makes him the county's first Filipino/American on the bench. He is a principal at Meyers, Nave, Rhack, Silver and Wilson PLC and city attorney for the cities of Union City and Pinole, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reyes, 51, earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. resident of Alameda is a lactive in the Bay Area legal community. He is a longtime supporter, former Vice-President and current advisory board member of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California.

Somnath Chattterjee

• Somnath "Raj" Chatterjee was appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court. Chatterjee, 47, of Oakland, has been a partner at Antolin Agarwal and Chatterjee LLP since earlier in 2017. He was a partner at Morrison and Foerster LLP from 2006 to 2017, where he was an associate from 1997 to 1999 and from 2000 to 2005. The Indian/American attorney served as a deputy public defender at the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office from 1999 to 2000. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Neetu Badham-

• Neetu Badhan-Smith has been appointed to Los Angeles Superior Court. Badhan-Smith has served as a deputy public defender at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office since 2004. The 40-year-old Los Angeles resident was formerly an attorney at the Southern California Housing Rights Center. The Indian/American lawyer earned a Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rubiya Nur

• Rubiya Nur, 52, will be joining Badhan-Smith on the bench of the Los Angeles Superior Court. She was born in Bangladesh. She has been a solo practitioner since 2008. Nur formerly served as a deputy public defender at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office from 2001 to 2008. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, San Bernardino.

Winston S. Keh

• Winston S. Keh will serve in the San Bernardino County Superior Court. Keh, 54, of Stevenson Ranch, has served as a commissioner at the San Bernardino County Superior Court since 2015. The Filipino/American was senior litigation attorney at Tharpe and Howell LLP in 2015, senior counsel at Diederich and Associates from 2012 to 2015 and an associate at R. Rex Parris Law Firm in 2012. Keh is a member of the Los Angeles-based Philippine American Bar Association, earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of La Verne College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of West Los Angeles. 

“While California has thousands of Asian/Pacific Islander attorneys, our state's judges have not reflected our diverse communities," said Assemblymember David Chiu, who served as former president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, and spearheaded judicial appointments for the API Legislative Caucus.

RELATED: Judge's son appointed to the bench

According to the annual report released by the Judicial Council released prior to these latest appointments, over two-thirds of the state's judges are white as of Dec. 31, 2016. The report also showed slight increases of judges of color.

• Asian (6.5 percent in 2016 compared to 4.4 percent in 2006);
• Black or African American (6.9 percent in 2016 compared to 4.4 percent in 2006);
• Hispanic or Latino (10 percent in 2016 compared to 6.3 percent in 2006);
• Pacific Islander (0.2 percent in 2016 compared to 0.1 percent in 2006);
• White (68.8 percent in 2016 compared to 70.1 percent in 2006);

The report shows that despite the increases, the courts have a ways to go to be fully representative of California's diversitiy. For example, Asians mamke up 10 to 11 percent of the state's population but only 6.5 percent of the judges.

“In order for Californians to have confidence in the court system, our judiciary should reflect the rich diversity of our state,” said Assemblymember Evan Low, chair of the subcommittee on appointments of the API Legislative Caucus.

“A diverse judiciary ensures a wider range of perspectives and allows for more decision-making power among underrepresented groups,” he said.

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The Atlantic: Muslim aide says why she left the Trump White House

Ruman Ahmed

IN 2011 Ruman Ahmed got a job of a lifetime. Straight out of college, she joined the Obama administration. "My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for," she writes in a piece in The Atlantic. "I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman -- I was the hijabi in the West Wing -- and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included."

The 2015-2016 presidential campaign changed the climate of the country, says Ahmed, the daughter of immigrants from Bangladesh. She felt the Muslim/American community was under attack.

As Obama left and Trump's people began moving into the White House, since she wasn't a presidential appointee, Ahmed felt her job with the National Security Council wasn't in jeopardy. She thought she could work with the incoming administration, as her peers had done with previous administrations, regardless of party affiliation.

She lasted eight days. When the President signed the executive order banning and restricting travel from seven Muslim-dominated countries and stopped accepting refugees, she felt she had to leave.

She told her boss, Michael Anton, who came in with Trump, why she was leaving: 

"I told him I had to leave because it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim. I told him that the administration was attacking the basic tenets of democracy. I told him that I hoped that they and those in Congress were prepared to take responsibility for all the consequences that would attend their decisions.:

Anton looked at her and said nothing.

It turns out that Anton wrote an article under a pseudonym on behalf of the Trump campaign that was widely disseminated among conservative websites. In the article he wrote that Islam is an inherently violent religion that is “incompatible with the modern West,” defended the World War II-era America First Committee, which included anti-Semites, as “unfairly maligned,” and called diversity “a source of weakness, tension and disunion.”

The article is also interesting because it gives us a glimpse of how the Trump White House was operating in an environment of chaos. The Monday after the inauguration, "I walked into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, with the new staffers there. Rather than the excitement I encountered when I first came to the White House under Obama, the new staff looked at me with a cold surprise. The diverse White House I had worked in became a monochromatic and male bastion."

"This was not typical Republican leadership, or even that of a businessman. It was a chaotic attempt at authoritarianism," Ahmed writes.

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO/ PETE SOUZA

Ruman Ahmed was part of the National Security staff that advised President Obama.

I wonder how many government employees are facing the same dilemma that confronted Ahmed and how many are arriving at the same conclusion.

Certainly, the underreported "revolt" within the government runs deep. Some workers have chosen to go underground and work from within the government. With alternative websites springing up set up by disgruntled government employees who have been told to stop using social media to share information about climate change, scientific and medical research and breakthroughs, I suspect the feeling of distrust against Trump and his political appointees runs deeper than we think.

Ahmed's resignation is only the tip of the iceberg.

America is far from perfect. There is much that still needs to be done, to fight for -- but we have to admit, the country has made mighty strides in the past 60-70 years during which we learned to take care of our elderly, ensured that retirees are not living in poverty and that all people have access to affordable health care. However, as the Trump administration begins to flex its muscle - the Muslim ban is only the start and The Wall has taken on metaphorical status - and we see the progress we've made in civil rights, equality and opportunities being attacked or undermined, we all need to ask ourselves the questions: Where do I stand? What can I do to express my outrage; to change things; to make a positive difference?

As Ahmed concludes in her article:

"Placing U.S. national security in the hands of people who think America’s diversity is a 'weakness' is dangerous. It is false.

"People of every religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and age pouring into the streets and airports to defend the rights of their fellow Americans over the past few weeks proved the opposite is true –– American diversity is a strength, and so is the American commitment to ideals of justice and equality."

Read the entire article here.

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The face that helped launch a movement

Munira Ahmed, left, was the model for the poster on the right.

YOU PROBABLY saw her face featured prominently in the Women's March on Washington last Saturday. She wore a hijab of the stars and stripes, a defiant gaze looking directly at you. 

The poster featuring 32-year old Munira Ahmed was held by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of marchers not only in the U.S parades but in sister marches throughout the world.

The poster was designed by Shepard Fairey, the same artist that created the iconic red, white and blue Hope portraitof Barack Obama that became popular during the 44th President's campaigns.

“It’s about saying, ‘I am American just as you are,’” Ahmed told the Guardian after returning to New York from Washington, where she took part in Saturday’s huge protest march. “I am American and I am Muslim, and I am very proud of both.” Ahmed, whose parents are from Bangladesh, was born in Jamaica, New York City and grew up in Queens.

RELATED: 

• Why they're marching
• 'We the People'
• More photos of family, friends and others in the march

Fairey’s contributions are in the same simple ink block style as his Obama portrait. He also designed posters of a black woman and a Latina accompanied by slogans: “Women are Perfect” and “Defend Dignity”. The portrait of Ahmed, however, has had the greatest impact.

Over the first weekend of the Trump era, several newspapers featured full-page reproductions of the artwork.

“It’s an honor because of what the picture represents,” Ahmed said. “It’s not anti-anything. It’s about inclusion. It’s about saying, ‘I am American just as you are.’”

The image on the poster is based on a photograph taken 10 years ago by Ridwan Adhami, a New York-based photographer who is also from Queens. The photo is well-known in its own right, generating controversy within the Muslim community as well in  mainstream culture.

LEFT: Shepard Fairy's most famous work is the iconic poster of Obama rendered in red, white and blue.