Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representatives Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) publicly released their letter to the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice concerning the recent complaint filed by over 60 Asian-American groups against Harvard University alleging discrimination against Asian American applicants. Reps. Royce and Rohrabacher have asked every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign the letter before sending it on June 22, 2015:

"The discrimination by elite American universities against Asian-American students is wrong and an offense to our Constitution’s 14th Amendment which offers citizens equal protection under the law. I argued against SCA-5 which would have directed public universities in California to prioritize race during the application process and I am leading my colleagues in contacting the federal government to urge a swift review of this complaint," said Rep. Royce. "We should be encouraging and inspiring our children to excel, not telling them their academic performance and merits are less important than their ethnicity."

"This is not just an issue for Asian-Americans. Those who do the best job should get the best positions and what we have now is an insidious form of discrimination that has caused harm to individuals simply because of their race,” said Rep. Rohrabacher.

Text of the letter is below:

June 22, 2015

Catherine Lhamon

Assistant Secretary

Office for Civil Rights

U.S. Department of Education

400 Maryland Avenue, SW

Washington, DC 20202-1100

Vanita Gupta

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General

Civil Rights Division

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Assistant Secretary Lhamon and Assistant Attorney General Gupta:

We are writing you regarding a recent complaint jointly filed by over sixty Asian-American associations from across the country with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concerning Harvard University’s continued and systematic discrimination against Asian-Americans during its admissions process.  We urge you to review their complaint with full and fair consideration consistent with applicable law, rules, and regulations, and support you taking immediate actions you deem warranted to protect Asian-American college applicants against any infringements on their constitutional rights or equal protection under the law.

We believe that a robust and extensive investigation of their complaint is necessary and could reveal that other institutions of higher education in addition to Harvard University exercise admission quotas that unambiguously and systemically limit the admission of Asian-American students, similar to the well-documented admission quotas administered in the 1920s to limit the admission of Jewish students.

The discrimination alleged by the complaint is indefensible, improper, and immoral. We must ensure that our nation’s universities are not excluding applicants for admission simply based on their race, behavior that is inconsistent with the ideals of our nation’s founding.

Please thoroughly review the material and concerns provided to you in the complaint filed on May 15, 2015, by the Coalition of Asian-American Associations. We have a continuing interest in a resolution of this complaint and look forward to learning about the results of your investigation.

Sincerely,

Ed Royce

Member of Congress

Dana Rohrabacher

Member of Congress