Out of 93 U.S. attorneys nationally — at least four are Asian Pacific American. Top gun Chinese American law enforcer Carol Lam is leaving California, the recently Senate-confirmed Indian American Rachel Paulose in Minnesota, Japanese American Edward Kubo of Hawai‘i and Amul Thapar — the son of Indian immigrants — of Kentucky.
Last year’s resignation of Debra Wong Yang of the California Central District (Los Angeles) and soon to be Lam’s California Southern District (San Diego) are major losses, considering that they were two out of the four U.S. attorneys representing California — the most APA-populated state — and had deep Asian American roots outside their own legal circles.
It was just six years ago before the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency and the dawn of George W. Bush’s Administration that no Asian Americans were the Department of Justice’s leading federal prosecutors and defenders representing the country in major federal criminal, civil and debt collection cases.
With 11 U.S. attorneys departing nationwide recently, APAs should be uneasy about the departure of a talent like Lam — who prosecuted Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham for taking $2.4 million in bribes. Lam’s office pursued quality high-impact cases, given her department’s limited resources. Cunningham’s was indeed high-impact — adding to the national referendum on ethics and a sea-change in Congress.
On the other hand, APAs could see new opportunities with the departures to appoint more APAs to the roster of U.S. attorneys like the vacancy by Kevin Ryan in the Northern District of California, which is the most heavily Asian American district in the nation.
There is legal talent in the Asian Pacific American bar. And given the Bush’s Administration new predilection with national security in the post of U.S. attorney, there are two former top Justice Department officials — albeit controversial and perhaps overqualified — PATRIOT Act’s author Viet Dinh and John Yoo, the interpreter of wartime POW treatment laws.
The Bush Administration — which appointed an unprecedented two APA cabinet secretaries — is still on the clock with two more years to appoint. While Asian Americans have made tremendous progress becoming U.S. attorneys, the jury is still out on the eventual record of President Bush’s U.S. Department of Justice now overseen by the nation’s first Latino attorney general in Alberto Gonzales.