The Department of Justice’s move came after the US Congress passed anti-hate crime legislation.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland (Merrick Garland) on Thursday instructed the Department of Justice to expand funding to states and cities to help track and investigate hate crimes, and ordered prosecutors to strengthen criminal and civil investigations of hate incidents.

Garland said in a memo to Justice Department employees that Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta (Vanita Gupta) will appoint people to work with prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and community groups to coordinate and act as a central “hub” for hate crimes. To ensure that there are sufficient resources to investigate and track hate crimes.

Garland said in the memo: “Hate crimes and other prejudice-related incidents filled the entire community with fear and undermined the principles of our democratic system.”

“All people in this country should be able to live without worrying about being attacked or harassed because of where they come from, their looks, their loved ones or the way they worship.”

Garland’s memo came at the time of the attacks and racist conflicts faced by Asian Americans when the then-President Donald Trump first began to blame China for the virus since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Has increased.

Earlier this month, President Biden Signed into law The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act authorizes the Ministry of Justice to designate an official to expedite the review of hate crimes reported to the police.

The new law aims to combat increasing violence. Hate crime during a pandemic Passed by an overwhelming advantage in the U.S. Congress.

In March, Garland announced that he would initiate a 30-day rapid review to explore how the department can improve methods for prosecuting hate crimes and collecting better data.

Thursday’s memorandum fulfilled certain requirements in the law and some recommendations from previous reviews.

Garland also designated an official in Thursday’s memo who will be responsible for expediting the review of hate crimes and called on the U.S. Attorney’s Office to designate local criminal and civil prosecutors as civil rights coordinators.

“Hate behavior does not necessarily rise to the level of federal hate crimes, but such hate incidents still have a devastating impact on our communities. Garland wrote: “When the federal hate crime law does not provide for it, the federal civil law has Remedial measures will be provided at the time. “

The majority of Americans across racial and ethnic groups believe that discrimination against Asian Americans has intensified last year, and they have been unfairly accused of being targeted by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center, 60% of Americans said that compared with a year ago, discrimination against Asian Americans has increased.

According to a survey released on May 26, nearly half of Americans today believe that Asian Americans suffer “a lot” or “a lot” of discrimination in the United States.

The poll also showed that about six in ten Americans said that in the United States, racism is generally a “very” or “extreme” serious problem. Most Asian Americans say they feel unsafe in public due to ethnic reasons.

The AP-NORC poll of 1842 adults was conducted from April 29 to May 3. The margin of error for all respondents was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.