Racial Equity and Hate Crimes             

The recent rash of violent anti-Asian hate crimes across the country has plunged the AAPI community into a maelstrom of anger, fear, and despair. While many of these cases were difficult to prosecute as the legal definition of hate crimes, the traumatic effect on the community is the same. Since the start of the pandemic, the AAPI community has been scapegoated for COVID-19. Almost 4000 hate crime incidents against the AAPI community during this time have been committed. However, hate crimes and bias incidents tend to be vastly underreported, so these numbers likely reflect just a fraction of the total incidents.

To combat anti-AAPI hate, as president of NYCADC, I have led an online petition that collected more than 50, 000 signatures in support of Congresswoman Grace Meng’s COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. As your Congressional representative, I will work hard to advance racial equity and combat any violence that stems from hate. I will also fund to provide victims with language assistance in reporting hate and discriminatory incidents, extend a culturally sensitive and safe space for victims to talk about what happened to them in a way that they feel most comfortable, and collect and document data on hate and discriminatory incidents.

I will work diligently to bring people who live in different corners of the city, who might rarely step out of their comfort zone to explore the other culturally diverse communities in New York City, together to work toward our common good by creating opportunities for dialogue. I will launch initiative that would help to break down some of the barriers that divide and support programs that reduce childhood poverty, narrow educational gaps, improve income and employment opportunities for marginalized populations, and quality health care for all.

If elected, I will establish a Constituent Advisory Council to hear from the district and get your feedback. Send him to Congress to ensure your voices are heard!
Affordable Housing

Being able to have access to affordable housing is a basic human right.  We have a housing shortage problem.  People are paying too much of their earnings in rent or mortgage payments.  To address this issue, I will partner with state and local officials to tackle this issue and bring in federal resources to support state and local initiatives on affordable plans.

I advocate that we need to review and revisit housing programs in the past that worked well to address the housing shortage, like the Michelle-Lama programs, Sweat Equity programs in 1970s, and labor union partnership cooperatives, where the government worked together with unions and progressive private sector to build more affordable housings for New Yorkers.  We also need to learn how other countries manage their housing shortage. For instance, Singapore has a program that allows low-income families to buy government-funded projects, in a way to address housing shortage and homelessness.

I will work toward allocating more funding to revamp and repair NYCHA once and for all. Additionally, he believes we need to streamline the NYCHA application and placement process for needy applicants. I will implement housing voucher initiatives and expand section 8 programs to offer New Yorkers more affordable options.

Crime and Gun Control

I support stricter gun controls. I believe that we need to have more comprehensive background checks for gun buyers to prevent these deadly weapons falling into the wrong hands.  I will work with colleagues to enact legislation that would strengthen gun safety in New York and prevented the flow of firearms from entering the state. We cannot allow people to bring guns across state lines from outside of New York. I will, along with my colleagues, enforce the following legislation to stop the proliferation of illegal guns and gun violence:

    Ban the sale of assault weapons, including automatic and semiautomatic mass killing weapons, and large-capacity magazines or ammunition feeding devices for semiautomatic weapons,
    Require gun purchasers to go through a licensing process that includes a thorough background check, safety training, and renewal at regular intervals,
    Raise the age to purchase firearms including semi-automatic weapons to 21,
    Enforce the Red Flag Law

Education and Poverty

I believe we need to tax the rich to fund more educational programs for marginalized communities. Education is one of the best ways to get out of poverty. I will fight for as much funding as possible and invest heavily in early education and made free or affordable childcare available for all New Yorkers.

At the other end of our children’s education ladder, student loans are weighing heavily on their shoulders, I support policies that will help to alleviate this burden such as tuition free college, streamlining existing forgiveness programs, and expanding Pell Grant. I will advocate funds for college-to-career programs and job or vocational training programs that would allow people to obtain living-wage jobs in NYC.

Additionally, our country was built on the backs of immigrants from around the world, however, the contributions made by immigrants are not taught in American history books. It is an imperative that we revise NYS’s core curriculum to reflect that.

Immigration

As the Immigration Committee Chair for a local community board, I worked closely with immigrant communities. We need to expand more services, such as language access and free legal consultations to our documented and undocumented brothers and sisters.  This country was built by immigrants. They helped to move the American economy forward and have always been a vital part of our country’s growth.  We need to provide a citizenship pathway for all immigrants.  We need to continue and expand DACA to help our undocumented brothers and sisters to obtain citizenship.  Furthermore, we must end the separation of families at the border expeditiously.