JACL Responds to the State of the Union
March 2, 2022
For Immediate Release
Matthew Weisbly, Education & Communications Coordinator, mweisbly@jacl.org
Sarah Baker, VP Public Affairs, sbaker@jacl.org
Yesterday, President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address, in which he called for bipartisanship and support for Ukraine.
We applaud President Biden and his team for signing 80 bipartisan bills into law last year, including the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act introduced by Representative Grace Meng and Senator Mazie Hirono. We extend our appreciation for his commitment to "protecting Asian-Americans from still-too-common hate crimes,” and we look forward to continuing our work to monitor and ensure that elements of the Hate Crimes Act are implemented to best support and protect our Asian Pacific American communities.
Japanese Americans have a long tradition of service to our country, most notably during WWII when Japanese American men served while their families remained incarcerated in American concentration camps. We praise President Biden’s pledge to provide comprehensive health care and benefits to veterans. Every veteran deserves the highest quality care, and we as a nation have too long neglected fulfilling this promise. Just as so many veterans struggle with mental health, so too have many more Americans due to the COVID pandemic, particularly children. We join the Biden Administration in their efforts to address the mental health pandemic that has accompanied COVID and affected our most vulnerable populations disproportionately.
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The Japanese American Citizens League is a national organization whose ongoing mission is to secure and maintain the civil rights of Japanese Americans and all others who are victimized by injustice and bigotry. The leaders and members of the JACL also work to promote cultural, educational, and social values and preserve the heritage and legacy of the Japanese American community.
