Letter of Transmittal

September 27, 2023

President Joseph R. Biden

Vice President Kamala Harris 

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy

President Pro Tempore of the Senate Patty Murray

On behalf of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (“the Commission”), I am honored to 

transmit our briefing report addressing Anti-Asian hate entitled, “The Federal Response to AntiAsian Racism in the United States." The full report is available on the Commission's website at 

www.usccr.gov.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a troubling amount of incidents 

stemming from anti-Asian animus, many rising to the criminal level which has caused substantial 

concerns surrounding hate crimes and discrimination against persons of Asian descent in the 

United States. As a result, this report marks the second time the Commission has examined the 

rise of anti-Asian racism and discrimination in its 65-year history.

In May 2021, the Commission urged the Administration to address anti-Asian racism and 

xenophobia, emphasizing that scapegoating Asian communities is not a new phenomenon. These 

harmful stereotypes have persisted since the 19th Century, when Asian immigrants were unjustly 

labeled the “Yellow Peril.” Media, medical journals, and government officials propagated the 

false ideas that Asians were “dirty, diseased, sinister, sexually depraved, invasive, and 

perpetually foreign.” These stereotypes have also fueled violence against Asian communities, 

such as the 1980s “Dotbusters” attacks on South Asians in New Jersey and the post-9/11 hate 

crimes in New York City, which marked one of the FBI’s highest reported hate crime numbers 

since 1992.

In October 2022, as a response to increased reports of anti-Asian hate crime and bias-motivated 

incidents, the Commission voted to investigate the federal government’s role in combating these 

incidents. This report examines three main areas: 1) national trends and data regarding the rise of 

hate incidents and hate crimes against members of Asian communities; 2) local and state law 

enforcement’s prevention and reporting practices regarding hate crimes; and 3) federal efforts 

and policies that encourage greater participation in reporting hate crime incidents, as well as 

prosecution and enforcement efforts to prevent hate crimes. 

UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

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20425 www.usccr.gov
The report emphasizes the importance of not only acknowledging the issue but also taking 

concrete actions to protect the rights and well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders 

across the nation. This report is bolstered by this Commission’s specific findings and 

recommendations (agreed upon by a bi-partisan majority), that will accompany the report for the 

first time since 2019:

Findings

Data collection & reporting:

● A major impediment to understanding the severity and magnitude of hate crimes against 

persons of Asian descent is the lack of comprehensive data.

● The transition to the NIBRS data collection has been slow for some agencies: for 2021, 

the number of participating agencies within the FBI hate crime database was 11,834, 

compared to the 15,138 participating agencies for 2020 data, and many of the agencies

that have not submitted 2021 data are the largest jurisdictions.

Recommendations

Training & Partnerships:

● Prosecutors and law enforcement should vigorously investigate and prosecute hate crimes 

and harassment against Asian Americans. 

● First responders should be provided with training aimed at teaching a clear understanding 

of what constitutes a hate crime in their jurisdiction. 

Language access: 

● Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and victim services need to identify 

critical deficiencies in Limited English Proficient (LEP) programs for individuals who 

need language assistance.

The Commission’s research highlights the urgent need for enhanced efforts in addressing and 

preventing anti-Asian hate crimes. The Commission heard written and oral testimony from 

academic and policy experts, federal and local law enforcement officials, and members of the 

public. The Commission also sent formal requests for information to relevant federal offices at 

the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and 

conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative research regarding the impact of hate crimes and 

bias-motivated incidents against Asian Americans in the U.S. during the height of the COVID-19 

pandemic. Throughout that process, we heard from experts regarding a series of findings and 

recommendations. These recommendations, while not adopted by the majority, are essential to 

address the pressing issues surrounding anti-Asian hate incidents and hate crimes.

Findings:

● The myth of the “perpetual foreigner” continues to play a role in understanding the rise of 

anti-Asian racism and discrimination during the pandemic.
● To contextualize the increased anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is 

important to understand the history of anti-Asian racism and the “Yellow Peril” laws.

● During the pandemic, there were several other names that were used in the media and by 

government officials to refer to COVID-19, including the “Chinese virus,” the “Kung 

flu,” and the “Wuhan virus,” potentially perpetuating negative views of Asian individuals 

and communities and leading to many Asian Americans feeling blamed for bringing 

COVID-19 to the U.S. 

Data collection & reporting:

● A major impediment to understanding the severity and magnitude of hate crimes against 

persons of Asian descent is the lack of comprehensive data. Without mandatory national 

data collection and training law enforcement on how to accurately identify and report 

hate crimes, preventing these crimes is substantially challenging.

● Hate crime victims are less likely to report incidents due to fear of retaliation, concerns 

that justice would not be served, and distrust in the criminal justice system.

● While the transition from the FBI’s UCR to NIBRS database intended to provide a more 

complete picture of hate violence across the nation, the shift has been challenging for 

many jurisdictions, and hate crime data remains incomplete.

● The transition to the NIBRS data collection has been slow for some agencies: for 2021, 

the number of participating agencies within the FBI hate crime database was 11,834, 

compared to the 15,138 participating agencies for 2020 data, and many of the agencies

that have not submitted 2021 data are the largest jurisdictions.

● In March 2023, the FBI released a Supplemental Hate Crimes Statistics report and 

showed that the number of anti-Asian reported incidents increased 167 percent from 279 

in 2020 to 746 in 2021.

● National data show that all race-based hate crimes rose by 30 percent in 2020; and 

specifically anti-Asian hate crimes increased over 70 percent in 2020. According to the 

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), anti-Asian hate crimes rose 164 percent in 16 of the 

largest cities and counties in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 

2020. BJA wrote that the first quarter increases in 2021 followed a “historic surge” in 

anti-Asian hate crimes that started in 2020, with anti-Asian hate crimes increasing 149 

percent in 16 of the largest cities in 2020. Specifically, data show that the first spike of 

anti-Asian hate crimes “occurred in March and April of 2020 concurrently with a rise in 

COVID cases and negative stereotyping of Asians related to the pandemic.”

● Hate crime data are underreported by victims and by law enforcement and are less likely 

to be reported to police compared to other types of crimes, and some research suggests 

that Asian Americans may be even less likely to report discriminatory behavior when it 

occurs.

● Data show that in California, hate crimes have increased steadily since 2019, and antiAsian hate crimes rose from 89 (6.7%) in 2020 to 248 (14.1%) in 2021. In San Francisco, 
all hate crime events increased from 2020 to 2021 (from 54 to 114), and the proportion of 

anti-Asian events increased significantly, representing 16 percent of events in 2020 and 

more than half of events in 2021.

● In New York, reported hate crimes dipped in 2020 before spiking in 2021. Anti-Asian 

hate crimes rose from 31 (6.35%) in 2020 to 140 (18.11%) in 2021. In New York City, 

the number of anti-Asian hate crimes in the city was one (0.2%) in 2019, rose to 27 

(10.2%) in 2020, and rose again to 131 (25%) in 2021. 

● In the United States, 34% of the Asian American population is limited English proficient. 

The most frequently spoken languages are Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai, 

Khmer, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, and Punjabi. 

Barriers:

● Few police departments have officers fluent in Asian languages, even in metropolitan 

areas with high numbers of AAPI residents. Therefore, language barriers continue to be a 

major barrier in reporting hate incidents and hate crimes.

● A major barrier to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the magnitude of hate 

violence against Asian communities may be due to incidents not rising to the legal 

benchmark of a hate crime. Many incidents that are reported to community organizations, 

such as being spit on or called racial slurs are not accounted for in official numbers, yet 

still invoke fear in community members.

● Under the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, funding is provided for state and local incident 

reporting hotlines, and in May 2022, DOJ expanded their language services to be 

available in 18 of the most frequently spoken AAPI languages across the nation. 

However, at the Commission’s briefing panelists testified the local reporting hotlines, 

victim services, and law enforcement were not accessible to victims with limited English 

proficiency, possibly pointing to a discrepancy between federal and local resource 

availability. 

● The lack of hate crime prosecutions may also be a contributing factor to low reporting of 

hate crimes. Prosecution of hate crimes is difficult, even in states with comprehensive 

hate crime legislation, because there is no one legal standard to which courts have agreed, 

or because the standard to prove bias is too high.

● Most nonprofit and community resources trying to provide the public with ways to 

combat anti-Asian violence include encouraging reporting hate incidents and hate crimes 

to local law enforcement as well as to organizations collecting data, learning about the 

history of Asian American discrimination, and encouraging elected officials to pass antihate legislation. 

● For struggling communities, the grantmaking process is cumbersome and difficult to 

maneuver through. 

● The true challenge in assessing whether the federal government is doing enough to 

combat a rise in hate crimes lies in the absence of proper performance measurements.
Recommendations:

Data & Reporting:

● FBI should require local law enforcement to submit crime data, or in lieu of that, 

Congress should make submission mandatory, or consider a range of options to expand 

implementation. 

● Congress could also consider authorizing a new grant program that would provide 

funding to state and local governments to cover expenses related to transitioning to 

NIBRS, such as purchasing new software and computers, or training officers on how to 

use NIBRS.

● Federal civil rights agencies should be required to collect and report key data related to 

civil rights enforcement and the Attorney General to annually publish this data.

● DOJ should fund state and local government efforts in partnership with community 

groups to address discrimination and other hate incidents.

● Law enforcement agencies should improve data collection, requiring the tracking and 

reporting of both hate incidents and hate crimes, and ensuring reporting forms are easy to 

mark an incident or crime as a suspected hate incident or crime.

Training & Partnerships:

● The Justice Department should also provide safety training and workshops in the 

respective languages of targeted communities and expand federal funding for community 

advocacy groups fighting hate crimes.

● The Justice Department should codify the role of the language access coordinator into 

federal law to ensure that all individuals have equal access to justice and access to federal 

programs and benefits regardless of language access. 

● A written policy within a law enforcement organization can serve as a bridge between 

hate crime legislation and implementation of that law by providing officers with 

information and a standard that the agency expects them to follow.

● Prosecutors and law enforcement should engage in joint training on hate crimes and 

community engagements and law enforcement agencies may even consider 

recommending that the prosecutor’s office have a designated attorney to prosecute hate 

crimes in the community.

● Prosecutors and law enforcement should vigorously investigate and prosecute hate crimes 

and harassment against Asian Americans. 

● First responders should be provided with training aimed at teaching a clear understanding 

of what constitutes a hate crime in their jurisdiction. 

● The FBI suggests state and local officials utilize the FBI’s resources, publicity tools, 

forensic expertise, and experience in identifying and investigating hate-based motivations 

even if federal hate crime charges are not pursued.
● A public health and gender-based approach to prevent hate in public spaces needs to be 

created, including the street harassment of AAPI women and other vulnerable 

communities. 

● More investment should be given to strengthen and expand local networks so victims 

have ready access to community-based places where they can report attacks, receive 

support services, and take safety training and workshops in their own languages.

Language access: 

● Regarding language access, federal agencies need to review their compliance with Title 

VI in Executive Order 13166 and take proactive steps to address any potential violations 

to ensure that they provide language access services to individuals who need them.

● As recipients of federal finding, local law enforcement and victim services should also 

comply with Title VI in Executive Order 13166 and provide language access such as 

interpreters and bilingual officers who speak Asian languages.

● Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and victim services need to identify 

critical deficiencies in Limited English Proficient (LEP) programs for individuals who 

need language assistance.

● Expand reporting hotlines or in-person contact for those limited English proficiency.

● Develop a language access policy statement prohibiting discrimination based on national 

origin that grants equal access to all individuals, including those with limited English 

proficiency and promotes effective communication through interpreter services, 

document translation, and staff training.

Civil Rights Protections:

● Title II of the Civil Rights Act should be expanded to include retail stores and other 

businesses where discrimination occurs to protect employees and customers from biasbased discrimination and harassment.

● Businesses frequented by the public should be required to train employees on their 

responsibilities to customers, so that they know and understand their responsibility to 

maintain a space free from bias-based harassment and discrimination, even if perpetrated 

by other customers.

This report provides essential insights and guidance for policymakers, law enforcement agencies, 

and community organizations working towards a more inclusive and equitable society. The 

Report is divided into three chapters: 

● Chapter 1 of the report discusses relevant federal hate crime laws, provides a brief 

historical context of Asian discrimination, and presents national statistics regarding hate 

crimes and hate incidents against persons of Asian descent from 2019-2022. 
● Chapter 2 describes local law enforcement’s efforts to respond to rising hate crimes, 

evaluates reporting and prevention practices, and summarizes ongoing reporting and 

prevention challenges. 

● Chapter 3 evaluates the federal government’s role in investigating, reporting, and 

prosecuting hate crimes.

We at the Commission are pleased to share our views, informed by careful research and 

investigation as well as civil rights expertise, to help ensure that all Americans enjoy civil rights 

protections to which we are entitled.

For the Commission,

Rochelle M. Garza

Chair