Senate Passes Rep Meng's Bill Targeting Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

QUEENS — In a nearly unanimous vote on Thursday, the Senate passed a bill aimed at addressing the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans amid the pandemic, announced New York’s 6th Congressional District representative, Congresswoman Grace Meng who reintroduced the bill with Senator Mazie Hirono at the beginning of March.

The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act — which passed in a bipartisan vote of 94 to 1 — would create a position at the Department of Justice to more quickly review COVID-19-related hate crimes, and expand the channels for reporting and preventing these cases, including online reporting available in multiple languages and efforts led by community-based organizations.

“For more than a year, Asian Americans all across our nation have been screaming out for help,” wrote Congresswoman Meng in a news statement about the bill’s passage, pointing to the exponential increase in racist and violent attacks on Asian communities during the pandemic, including in her “home district of Queens.”

Congresswoman Meng said that her bill’s efforts to increase the reporting of anti-Asian hate crimes — which are vastly underreported in New York City, especially among older Asians, reported The City — would “provide us with increased data and a more accurate picture of the attacks that have been occurring against those of Asian descent, and a more centralized and unified way of reviewing these crimes would help to address the problem in a more effective manner.”

She added that she’s heard many stories from Asian Americans of all ages who “tell me that they are scared to walk outside,” adding “being forced to endure this terror and fear is unconscionable and unacceptable. Everybody in our country deserves to feel safe, and that includes the Asian American community.”

Congresswoman Meng has been open about the racism and bigotry that she herself has endured as an AAPI woman, including when her resolution condemning anti-Asian sentiment passed in the House last September, and people left racist messages on her office voicemail.

In response to the bill’s passage there’s been an outpouring of support online, under the hashtag #StopAsianHate, including a message of support from Bernice King, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, to which Congresswoman Meng responded: “We are in it TOGETHER to fight racism against all.”

The legislation will go to the House in May, during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, where it is expected to pass since lawmakers there already passed a resolution last year condemning COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination.

After that President Joe Biden will have to sign the bill into law — which he already stated he would do in March.