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By Trinh Q. Truong

Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy
Undocumented immigrants make significant economic contributions and are integral members of communities across the United States immigration relief is necessary to continue growing the economy and strengthening communities nationwide, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Immigration relief is long overdue for the 10.4 million undocumented immigrants living and working across the United States. Over the past two years, undocumented immigrants have worked through a deadly pandemic to sustain the industries and services that the country relies on. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Tom K. Wong, Claudia Flores, Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, Karen Fierro Ruiz, & Nicole Prchal Svajlenka

Since former President Barack Obama first announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on June 15, 2012, it has provided temporary relief from deportation as well as work authorization to more than 830,000 undocumented young people across the country.

From September 8 to November 5, 2021, the Center for American Progress, United We Dream, and the National Immigration Law Center—led by Tom K. Wong of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego and CAP—fielded a national survey to further analyze the experiences of DACA recipients. 2021 marked the seventh consecutive year that these organizations have surveyed DACA recipients. For this most recent study, the authors surveyed 1,021 DACA recipients across 40 states as well as Washington, D.C.. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Mike Williams and Laura Edwards

The United States has failed, up to this point, both to take proper action on climate change and to dedicate the necessary resources and support toward building a domestic manufacturing base for global clean technology supply chains. This failure has provided a clear opening for other countries to grasp the competitive foothold for those budding supply chains. The clearest benefactor of the United States’ inaction? China.

China has turned this opportunity into market dominance for clean technology. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar components and has the world’s largest capacity for wind turbine component manufacturing. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

From CAPAC

Washington, D.C. , Feb. 4— The House of Representatives today passed H.R. 4521, the America COMPETES Act, a comprehensive package of science, commerce, trade, foreign policy, manufacturing, and education policy to improve American competitiveness. This bill includes $2 billion to support industries reliant on semiconductors, like automobiles and electronics and another $45 billion to improve supply chain resilience and manufacturing technology. The America COMPETES Act will also make investments in the future, by creating a new Directorate for Science and Engineering Solutions to accelerate research and development that address pressing issues like climate change, cybersecurity, and global competitiveness. It modernizes our support for workers who have lost jobs due to trade while also improving our laws to ensure trade is more fair to the US, while continuing to protect the supply chain. Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), issued the following statement:

: -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE

By Nicole Rapfogel and Emily Gee

In the past couple years, federal policymakers have made historic improvements in access to health coverage. With the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)’s expansion of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for marketplace plans set to expire at the end of this year, however, millions of Americans could face higher costs for coverage starting in 2023. Policymakers in the U.S. Senate must prevent this outcome and act swiftly to extend the marketplace premium tax credits, while making affordable coverage available to the more than 2.2 million uninsured Americans in the Medicaid coverage gap.

The ARPA, signed into law on March 11, 2021, provides expanded premium tax credits to offer more affordable health coverage to many Americans and increases these tax credits for those already subsidy-eligible—making zero-premium or low-cost coverage available to millions of lower-income Americans as well as those who were unemployed in 2021. -- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE​

From APIAVote

WASHINGTON, DC - Christine Chen, Executive Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, issued the following statement after the United States Senate failed to put the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act to a vote. “We at APIAVote are greatly disappointed with the Senate’s failure to put the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act to a vote. In 2021 alone, 34 new laws in nineteen states were enacted to restrict access to the ballot box and more are under consideration today. It has never been more clear: Americans’ freedom to vote is under attack by some politicians’ decision to place political gain over the integrity of our democracy.”

“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) came out to the polls in historic numbers in 2020 and 2021. In many cases, we were the margin of victory that determined elections, and we chose to elect leaders who have helped make significant progress for our communities in the past several months: the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is now law, California has allocated $150 million for combating anti-Asian Hate, and Illinois and New Jersey will now require Asian American history in schools. All of this is at-risk, however, if our access to voting is diminished.” .-- CLICK STORY TO READ MORE