Indian American Amit Jani Named Acting White House Liaison at the Department of Homeland Security
- Former National Asian American Pacific Islander Director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, Jani has worked with several lawmakers including N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Bob Menendez.
Amit Jani, National Asian American Pacific Islander Director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, is now the acting White House liaison at the Department of Homeland Security, Politico’s West Wing Playbook has reported. The Indian American was most recently director of the chief information officer action group at the Pentagon, Jersey Globe said in its report. Before joining the Biden campaign, the New Jersey native was a legislative liaison at the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Previously, Jani worked as an account executive at Vision Media Marketing, the political consulting firm run by Phil Swibinski. He started as a youth organizer for 32BJ SEIU and as a member of the Hudson County Schools of Technology Board of Education.
Gold Star father Khizr Khan, said Jani is “an excellent organizer and an excellent individual” and his family’s association with a political party in India or the U.S., hasn’t affected his work.
Apart from working in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, Jani was formerly the director of the AAPI Outreach for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s campaign. He has worked with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and as a congressional aide for Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Calif.).
He was also an APAICS Legislative Fellow alum while serving in Chu’s office in 2014. Other capacities Jani serves are South Asians For America (SAFA) co-chairperson, school board member at the Hudson County Schools of Technology in New Jersey, and a board member of the New Leaders Council and Act to Change.
Jani was president and co-founder of the New Jersey Leadership Program, which exposes South Asian high school students to government and politics at the state and local levels.
During his tenure as the Asian American Pacific Islander outreach director for Biden’s presidential campaign, Jani faced the ire of Muslim and civil rights activists and South Asian progressives, for his family’s ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. They claimed that Jani is unfit to work on the campaign because of his alleged affinity to Modi and his party’s Hindutva agenda.
Jani’s father, Suresh Jani, was a founder of the Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (USA). Suresh Jani and Prime Minister Modi were said to be old friends and belonged to the same village.
Gold Star father Khizr Khan, who endorsed Biden’s presidential bid last November, told this correspondent that Jani is a “good-hearted person.” Khan, who has known Jani for a few years, said he is “an excellent organizer and an excellent individual.” He said Jani’s family’s association with a political party in India or the U.S., hasn’t affected his work or has deviated from the mission of the campaign.