Her experience as a daughter of immigrants makes her best placed to understand and resolve the concerns of immigrants in the US
Our Bureau
Washington
Neera Tanden, an Indian American and public policy expert has outlined her work priorities and intends to focus and work on the issue of immigration in her new role as the White House Domestic Policy Advisor. She emphasized that her experience as a daughter of immigrants makes her best placed to understand and resolve the concerns of immigrants in the US.
Tanden, 52, replaces former US National Security Advisor Susan Rice as the White House Domestic Policy Advisor, considered a very powerful position inside the White House.
“I am extremely enthusiastic about taking over as Domestic Policy Council Advisor. My experience is like many immigrants in the United States as children of immigrants,” said Tanden.
“My father came here from India in the early 1950s, and my mother came in the 1960s. They moved to Bedford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. At that time, they were the only Indian family in that community. So, I felt a part of that community, but also a little bit different,” she said.
Tanden is the first Asian American to lead one of the three major White House policy councils, as Biden’s Domestic Policy Advisor. She is a close confidant of President Joe Biden and has worked as the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign.
She said that President Biden has important principles to ensure and expand legal immigration and pathways.
“We have a lot of complicated issues on immigration at the border, but it’s a touchstone to ensure that America’s role as a beacon for the world, a place where there are people like my parents who made that great leap of faith to go to a place very different, live in a different world, a different culture, and try to really reach for the American dream,” she said.
“One of the great aspects of our immigration policies, and we have to keep true to that, is fighting against efforts to restrict legal immigration and really ensure that our immigration policies reflect our values for the 21st century,” she said.
Tanden holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a law degree from Yale Law School. She began her career as an associate director for domestic policy in former president Bill Clinton’s White House and senior policy adviser to the first lady.
