Pramila Jayapal says she wants to be a voice for middle class, immigrants in Congress

The Chennai-born Democrat, who was endorsed by Sanders, is running from Washington’s 7^th district.

By Raif Karerat

Armed with the notion that corporate special interests and anti-immigrant hysteria have sunk their talons far too deeply into the overarching body of American politics, Indian American Pramila Jayapal, 50, has set out to add her boldly progressive voice to Capitol Hill as a congressional representative from Washington state.

Jayapal — who emigrated from India as a teenager — is running for Congress from Washington’s 7^th district in order to succeed incumbent Jim McDermott. The district, which includes most of Seattle, is considered to be one of the most reliably Democratic localities in the nation. Jayapal, who originally hails from Chennai, is engaged in a primary battle with four others, including fellow Indian American Arun Jhaveri, who formerly served as the mayor of Burien, Washington.

After observing the hypocrisy and skewed nature of Wall Street first hand during the 1980s, Jayapal has spent the past 25 years advocating for both the middle class and immigrants across the United States. She now hopes she can bring that very same impetus to the House of Representatives if elected in November.

An adamant proponent of the American Dream, Jayapal recently spoke with the American Bazaar about her plan to keep the ethos alive for future generations of Americans regardless of race, creed, or socioeconomic status. Here are the edited excerpts:

What sort of change are you looking to instigate from Washington, D.C., as opposed to Washington state?

Immigration reform is something that I’ve worked on for 15 years and I don’t think there’s anyone in the state who knows the policy and the politics of immigration reform better than I do, so that’s certainly a big thing. Many of the large changes that we’re looking at to really make sure that the middle class has a fair shot — that we’re continuing to lift people out of poverty — can be done at the federal level. From tuition-free college for people who are seeking a higher education, which to me is an investment in the future, to Medicare — I don’t believe the conversation at the federal level is going in the right direction when we talk about cutting those programs. I think there’s a way to actually expand them and make sure that we continue to take care of people. Also important is saving the environment and really protecting it from damage through carbon tax and through making the biggest polluters pay. I’ve also worked on issues around income equality. I was on the committee to raise the minimum wage here in Seattle to $15 an hour and I’m looking forward to continuing that work for everybody across the country, not just for people here in Seattle.

How have your experiences as an immigrant shaped your outlook on policymaking?

I came to the United States when I was 16, my parents took all the money they had — about $5,000 — and put it into sending me here so that I could get what they thought would be the best education. I think the opportunity to have that and in a way, to live my version of the American Dream, has made me that much more committed to making sure that other people get their American Dream. I think that concept of the American Dream is slipping away far too quickly for most people; they don’t really believe it exists. The middle class has shrunk, we have way more people in poverty and the wealth/income concentration at the very top is stifling the opportunities for everybody else. I think my experiences as an immigrant have made me very conscious of bringing voices to the table that aren’t already there. I’m speaking about immigrants but also people of color, women, and the poor and the vulnerable. That’s been incredibly important to me and I think a lot of it shaped by my experiences as an immigrant — specifically having certain opportunities and wanting everybody to have those opportunities.

Prior to serving in the Washington State Senate, you founded OneAmerica, formerly known as Hate Free Zone. Can you describe the work your organization did and why you felt the need to create an advocacy group in such a vein?

I started it right after 9/11 and it initially dealt with hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians, but within two weeks of that post-9/11 backlash was that we were fighting the U.S. government. It was the time of President George Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft; they were detaining and deporting people simply for being Arab or Muslim. I felt I had to speak out about things going on that were completely wrong and antithetical to the American values that I had just sworn to as I had just become a U.S. citizen in 2000. That work led to taking on the federal government: we sued what was then called the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] regarding the deportation of  4,000 Somalis back to Somalia and won, we registered 23,000 new immigrants to vote here in Washington state which is the largest registration drive in the history of the state, we helped establish a Governor’s New Americans Policy Council at the state level, we established an Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs at the city level, we fought for the passage of the DREAM [Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors] Act and won here in the state, and we worked with organizations around the country on commencing immigration reform at the federal level. We actually took part in writing the immigration reform bill that [was] eventually passed in the Senate with 67 votes. It was a huge bipartisan victory, especially in what has been an incredibly divided Senate and House. We were able to accomplish a lot and we were able to do that by organizing people. We brought hundreds of thousands of people back into our democracy speaking out for what they value, speaking out for what they need, and speaking out what they were going to do. That was really inspiring and wonderful and we built leadership amongst a lot of young people, people of color — people who had never participated before. This continued to become the largest immigrant advocacy organization in [Washington] state and one of the largest in the country still operating very successfully. I stepped down in 2012 as the executive director but the work continues in wonderful ways.

The cost of higher-education has become a flashpoint for many post-grads who now find themselves stricken with unsustainable debt. You’ve said the first bill you intend to introduce would put an end to college debt, how so?

I would like to introduce a bill here in the state that would provide tuition-free college. I started here in the state with free community college just because our community college system is so accessible to so many people across the state as opposed to our four-year institutions. If we could increase transfer rates from two-year colleges to four-year colleges, I think that would be tremendous. I’d be looking to do something similar in the U.S. Congress for all institutions of higher education. When I think about it it’s a no-brainer because when you invest in students today they get a degree that they need to get, they get their job, and they end up not being as dependant on government services. We’re currently driving students away from higher education and that’s the opposite of what we need to do.

Do you believe an economy based on clean-energy can be a successful one?

I do. I actually think it’s a great opportunity to invest in green jobs — to use the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy as the opportunity to actually invest in a whole new infrastructure, and that’s both jobs and the environment together. To me, that seems like the smart thing to do. I think there’s a lot of push-back from the biggest corporations that are polluting the most because we would want them to pay for what they’re doing and to pay for helping us make that transition.

You mentioned Medicare — as far as social programs go do you believe the United States can mitigate the seemingly inevitable downfall of Social Security?

I don’t think it’s inevitable at all. I think that the way the debate is being framed is wrong — it’s sort of saying, “Well, we’ve got this big crisis with Social Security and Medicare,” but actually there’s a lot of money that’s still in the Social Security and Medicare system. If you just scrapped the cap on federal taxes for the highest earners you would bring a huge amount of money into the system. There are certainly changes that need to be made but the change is not to raise the retirement age or to cut Social Security and Medicare, I think it’s actually to figure out how people how people can pay appropriately into the system to take care of everybody. To me, Medicare and Social Security are two of the programs that really epitomize American values. This idea that I put into a pool, you put into a pool, your money takes care of me when I get old and your money takes care of me when I get old — it’s the idea that we’re all better off when we’re all better off. I think we should maintain that and expand it. I’ve looked at the numbers and I don’t understand all the doom and gloom scenarios. Of course if you made no changes to it at all there would be a problem but the changes that we could make are to ensure that those who are most vulnerable continue to get taken care of and scrapping the cap [on taxing the highest earners] would actually help to equalize opportunities for Social Security and Medicare. People say there’s a big deficit in Social Security and Medicare and there just isn’t. There’s a lot of money in that system and there’s a lot more ways to put money in that system.

Who are you endorsing for the 2016 presidential election? 

I’ve endorsed Bernie Sanders and Bernie Sanders [has] endorsed me! I was one of three people running for Congress whom he endorsed and it has been absolutely insane the last 24 hours!

How would you respond to Indian Americans who have thrown their support behind Donald Trump?

(Laughter ensues)

I’m trying to collect my thoughts so I say something appropriate for a news outlet! I would just say that it’s incredibly disappointing for not just Indian Americans but any people of color to put their support behind Donald Trump when you look at the way that he has been creating hate, sowing the seeds of “us versus them,” and promoting both intolerance and physical violence. Just because a black protestor shows up and speaks his mind he gets attacked by a bunch of Trump supporters and then Trump offers to pay their legal bills. I would just say to Indian Americans and anyone else that we have something very special in the United States, which is the idea that we all come together and we are great in our diversity. Donald Trump is the absolute antithesis of that. We’re at a crossroads in this country and I hope people look very carefully at what they’re doing when they vote for Trump — to recognize that it’s going to take us stepping out and refusing to accept hate, refusing to accept divisions, and instead remembering all the things that have made America great in the past. Much of that is our diversity and our ability to be generous and compassionate to each other.

Having worked on Wall Street, do you believe that financiers have been given too much leeway throughout the various channels of U.S. law?

I did work on Wall Street right out of college, and yes, absolutely. There’s a funny story — and you’ll appreciate this being Indian American — when I came here my father told me there were three acceptable professions: a doctor, a lawyer, or a businessperson. Those were the three things I was allowed to be. My sophomore year of college I called him from the dorm phone and I told him that I was going to be an English literature major and I had to hold the phone away from my ear as he yelled at me and said, “I didn’t send you to the United States to learn how to speak English! You already know how to speak English!” Therefore I promised him that I would get the same job with an English degree that I would’ve gotten with an economics degree, which is what I was supposed to be getting. In the 1980s that meant you went to Wall Street; those were the best jobs around, they paid well, and they were kind of hot jobs during the 1980s when leverage buyouts were just coming into fashion. Mike Milken was king — I’m dating myself a little bit here — but it was a crazy environment. I got a job at Paine Webber in the leverage buyout department and I tell young people that jobs that tell you what you don’t want to do are just as important as jobs that tell you what you want to do. Many of the reasons why we’ve seen these crashes, financial derivatives, and the elimination of the Glass-Steagall Act are because financiers are taking advantage of any tiny loophole that exist essentially to feed the greed of individuals. These are all things that have been part and parcel of Wall Street and remain absolutely unchecked. I learned a lot and it drove me to social justice for the next 25 years! I absolutely believe we need more regulation and that Wall Street firms need to be under the scrutiny of very, very vigilant regulators. We need to ban some of these financial derivatives that are taking advantage of poor people and led to the housing collapse.

Other than running for Congress, do you have other plans for the future? I know you’re already a published author, perhaps another book?

Well, there’s supposed to be! I feel terrible because I had a book contract from the New Press two years ago before I got elected to the [Washington] Senate and it’s supposed to be about immigration in this country and changing demographics. Then I thought I’d write a book about an activist becoming an elected official and that is still tentatively the plan but there’s no writing actually happening. I’ve got to get to work — I do have a book contract but I haven’t had any time to work on it!

I’m sure you’ve been quite busy with campaigning and whatnot.

Why yes, I have!

(This interview has been updated)