SAALT Calls for a Pathway for Citizenship Under Biden-Harris

The South Asian organisation vows to hold the incoming “Administration accountable to our communities”.

With the announcement of the Biden-Harris win, South Asian Americans Lead­ing Together (SAALT), a primary community advocacy organisation, has called for a complete overhaul of the US immigration system to ensure a pathway to citizenship to all.

“This election opens up greater potential for pushing the policies that matter to our communities,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, Executive Director of SAALT, congratulating Biden and Harris on their historic win.

“We will rely on the same vigilance that propelled historic voter turnout and accurate vote counts to hold this Administration accountable to our communities", she added.

“This means a complete overhaul of our immigration system that ensures a pathway to citizenship for all, COVID-19 relief packages that include immigrants of all status, increased language access resources, an end to detention and the militarisation of US borders, and the transformation of policing as we know it”.

Lakshmi Sridaran, Executive Director of SAALT

“We will celebrate and heal, but we also know the work of undoing the immense harm of the last four years and affirmatively laying the groundwork for meaningful systems change requires intention and political will,” she said referring to the harmful and relentless immigration policy changes implemented under the Trump administration.

“In order for this Administration to truly acknowledge the Black and brown communities whose years of organising delivered their victory, beyond representation, we expect them to exercise that political will to the full extent on behalf of our communities”

Lakshmi Sridaran, Executive Director of SAALT

The historic nature of US voter turn out in 2020, especially among Black and Brown communities, was a direct reflection of voters that suffered felt the brunt of the Trump Administration’s xenophobic and racist polices and dangerous rhetoric, SAALT said.

A focus on disenfranchised voters of colour instead of relying on the Democratic Party’s usual disproportionate focus on moderate white voters, harnessed the political organising power of communities of colour across Georgia, said the organisation, referring to one of the swing states that helped solidify the Biden-Harris win.