By Leonard Chan

One of the things that I was curious about was how President Trump’s actions to combat the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion in his second administration would affect Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI Heritage Month). As I wrote back in May of 2006, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (as it was called back then) was created by an act of congress and each year, the president would codify the act with a proclamation extolling the contributions of AAPIs to American society and history.

At the beginning of his second term, President Trump signed a flurry of executive orders. One of these was an executive order (EO 14148) to end a whole set of orders signed by President Biden. Included in this set was “Executive Order 14031: Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.”

EO 14031 was part of a long series of executive orders dating back to the Clinton Administration (EO 13125 of June 7, 1999, called “Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs”). Each of the presidents, including President Trump, in his first administration, signed similar executive orders that essentially continued and added to EO 13125.

So what did President Trump’s canceling of EO 14031 really do and did it end AAPI Heritage Month?

What was EO 14031 and the executive orders like it?

To get the quickest understanding of EO 14031 it helps to start by looking at the original Clinton executive order (EO 13125 Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs). As mentioned earlier, each presidential administration essentially built on the earlier executive orders and tailored it to fit that administration’s goals. At the heart of all of the orders was a desire to better serve the AAPI communities.

EO 13125 states that “in order to improve the quality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased participation in Federal programs where they may be underserved (e.g., health, human services, education, housing, labor, transportation, and economic and community development), it is hereby ordered as follows:” (I’ll summarize the rest).

Section 1: Establish an advisory commission as part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Section 2: The commission shall provide advice to the president on:

“(a) the development, monitoring, and coordination of Federal efforts to improve the quality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased participation in Federal programs where such persons may be underserved and the collection of data related to Asian American and Pacific Islander populations and sub-populations; (b) ways to increase public-sector, private-sector, and community involvement in improving the health and well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; and (c) ways to foster research and data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, including research and data on public health.”

Section 3: establish an interagency working group called the “White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” The Director of the Commission would also serve as the Director of the Initiative.

The rest of this order contains details of how the Commission and Initiative would be formed and operate together; funding sources for their work (members of the commission would not be paid, but would have administrative help coming from HHS and various other agencies); the termination date for the commission and executive order (with the option to extend the order with a continuance executive order); and the definition for AAPI.

Not to be overlooked above is section 2(c). This executive order and ones like this one that followed, usually had provisions to collect data and study the needs of the AAPI community. Of all the things that these executive orders did, this is perhaps the most important function. Without appropriate and detailed data collection and research, you cannot begin to address the problems that may exist. Without consistent data collection over time, you cannot even tell if you are making any progress or even regressing.

Trump’s First Term Executive Order Addressing AAPIs’ Needs

It is interesting to read the executive order (EO 13872) created during the first Trump administration to see the differences it had from EO 13125.

EO 13872 was more concerned with improving the economic situation of AAPIs rather than their health and living conditions. So the Commerce Department was put in charge the Commission and Initiative, and the executive order was rebranded as “Economic Empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”

Even with these changes, the first Trump administration was still interested in helping AAPIs. EO 13872 states:

“While we celebrate the many contributions of the AAPI communities to our Nation, we also recognize that AAPI communities and enterprises encounter challenges accessing economic resources and opportunities. Many of the more than 1.9 million AAPI-owned enterprises are small sole-proprietorships that need assistance to access available resources such as business development counseling, small-business loans, and government procurement opportunities. Today’s AAPI workforce is the largest it has been in American history, and we will continue striving toward furthering AAPI advancement in employment and workforce development as well as increasing AAPI participation and representation in the upper levels of leadership in the public and private sectors.”

Biden’s Executive Order 14031

The Biden administration’s version of this executive order was written during the middle of the COVID pandemic, when anti-Asian hate was still rampant. So Biden returned to addressing health and social justice issues with his version of this executive order.

EO 14031 states:

“Our Nation has also seen again that anti-Asian bias, xenophobia, racism, and nativism have deep roots in our Nation. Tragic acts of anti-Asian violence have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, casting a shadow of fear and grief over many AA and NHPI communities… The Federal Government must provide the moral leadership, policies, and programs to address and end anti-Asian violence and discrimination, and advance inclusion and belonging for all AA and NHPI communities.

“At the same time, many AA and NHPI communities, and in particular Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, have also been disproportionately burdened by the COVID-19 public health crisis. Evidence suggests that Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are three times more likely to contract COVID-19 compared to white people and nearly twice as likely to die from the disease. On top of these health inequities, many AA and NHPI families and small businesses have faced devastating economic losses during this crisis, which must be addressed…

“it is the policy of my Administration to address and confront racism, xenophobia, and intolerance.”

Trump’s Executive Order Ending this String of Pro-AAPI Orders

President Trump’s EO 14148 states:

“The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government. The injection of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”

Is there a connection of these executive orders with AAPI Heritage Month?

Since the timing of the executive orders that worked to help AAPIs usually came out near or within AAPI Heritage Month, there seemed to be some question as to whether the revocation of EO 14031 would mean the removal of support for AAPI Heritage Month.

President Trump’s latest order did not end AAPI Heritage Month. Trump still made the proclamation for it (read it here).

Final Conclusion

Whether or not our federal government proclaims the virtues of the AAPI communities, it looks like AAPI Heritage Month is here to stay. Local businesses, organizations, and communities have taken the initiative to continue the practice of celebrating AAPI Heritage Month.

While the latest Trump administration commends the contributions of AAPIs to the United States. It no longer seems to want to do anything specific to help AAPI communities. Like it or not, Trump has taken the steps towards what they believe to be a colorblind government.

But without the efforts to collect important data, how will we be able to address the needs of our diverse communities? How will we know if and when we are all truly equal? Will our government leaders bury their heads in the sand and proclaim that all is perfect with our country while they are in power? How will we ever hope to improve our conditions?

Let us all hope that the AAPI communities can endure the lack of targeted support from our federal government.