A delegation of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community on Thursday met US president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris to discuss a range of issues including hate crimes and immigration.
The meeting took place at the White House in Washington DC, and also covered the matter of voting rights.
Executive director of Indian American Impact, Neil Makhija, said that he "raised issues of immigration, voting rights and specifically green card backlog in context of explaining how country caps are remnants of exclusionary laws in the past, particularly enacted in the 20s."
He also told ANI that Biden has an "acute awareness of the unfairness in the system."
During the meeting, Biden added that the community is also critical in keeping the US economy strong.
But he further acknowledged that "there is work to do on immigration; there’s work to do on voting rights and so much more."
"On my first day in office, I signed an executive order to advance racial equity and a whole-of-government approach to address inequities and injustice in America from every agency," he remarked. "And this group’s input has been critical and continues to be critical to that approach."