 Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. You can go to love in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to love in Germany, or Turkey, or Japan, but you cannot become a German, or Turk, or Japanese. But anyone from any corner of the earth can come to love in America and become American. Welcome back to a nation of immigrants, a new talk show program featuring the lives of immigrants, knowledge, diversity, and inclusion. Brought to you by Singtai Hawaii and the Kingsfield Law Office. We invite renowned immigrants to discuss their life stories, immigration adventures, and the contributions to cultural diversity. Today's guest is Sara Swadi Singh. As a prosecutor in the Adult Criminal Division of the Ramdy County Attorney Office, Sara Swadi works on a diverse team for the first Korean-American Chief Prosecutor in the country. She is past president of the American Constitutional Society Minneapolis and Paul Lawyers Chapter and an active member of the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association, NAPABA. Sara Swadi Singh was appointed by Minnesota Governor Tim Was to serve on the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and was elected to Executive Committee of the Council. A second generation Indian American originally from Brooklyn, Sara Swadi moved to Washington D.C. for an internship with her hometown Senator Hillary Clinton. She was worked in government affairs, worked with elected officials, and helped build a co-legion to help leaders make better, more informed decisions. She believes it's important to see the representation of Asian Americans and women at the legislative and governing board tables so that all Americans can work together toward a happier, healthier, and more just future. Sara Swadi is running for Hannington County Attorney. Welcome, Sara Swadi. We are so happy to have you here. Hi, Chang. It's so good to see you again. Good to see you. We have known each other for a while. We both serve on the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, but we normally can't get a chance to talk about your personal life. So I'm going to take this opportunity to ask you to share with us your family background, your parents perhaps, and how do you settle in Minnesota? Sure. Yeah, we never got to know these parts of each other. So my family came to the U.S. because of my grandfather. He studied at the University of Iowa for a journalism degree and he went back to India and reported on the British who were occupying and colonized India at the time and actually talked about censorship. And he saw a lot of awful things. And when India became independent, he became part of the UN mission for India and ended up in New York City where there's the UN building. Anyway, there's a long story. He became a professor later on, just like you Chang. And my dad came over and my grandma, we grew up in New York. And then my dad had an arranged marriage with my mom from India, Northern India, Bihar. It's a very poor area of the country, mostly farming. And they're very proud of my grandfather who ended up here in the U.S. And my mom really focused on education for all her kids. And so I ended up going to Colgate University, which is in upstate New York. I had conservative professors who helped me get an internship with my hometown senator, like you mentioned. So I ended up in D.C. and it opened up this world of possibilities that I, like it was my dream to do politics, but I didn't think I could actually do it because there weren't really that many people that looked like me in it. And anyway, I ended up working for Hillary Clinton, did a good job, got a job with Biden, ended up managing a government affairs department, building coalitions and working on things like immigration, transportation bills, things like that. And then I went to law school because I realized everyone higher than me was doing that. And I was like, Oh, that's a good fit for me. I like laws. So I ended up getting into the University of Minnesota Law School, which is a top 20 school. And that's how I ended up here in Minnesota. And then my siblings, they came out with me because they got, one of them did, got into residency here at Hennepin Healthcare. That's what it's called now. And another one went to the University of Minnesota, too, because I said it was so great here. So that's a little bit about me in my opinion. Wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing. It's great to hear such an inspiring and beautiful American story. I saw you brought some pictures to share with us. Why now do you tell us about the stories behind those pictures? Yeah. So I love this picture. A few years ago, maybe it's a little more than a few years ago, I was with the American Constitution Society, I still am. It's a progressive legal organization. And they helped me get sworn in and from the US Supreme Court bar, which was so exciting. And so I got to bring one person with me. And I brought my mom who dressed up in her sorry, which you can see. And while we were there, we had breakfast and Justice Ginsburg stopped by. And I tapped Justice Ginsburg on her shoulder. I don't know if that was the right thing to do. And I said, can I take a picture with you and my mom? Because my mom, she wasn't allowed to go to school until she was in the eighth grade when she had another family member help advocate for her. Because she was a girl that lived in a time and place where girls didn't go to school. And so to show her to the justice, who was the top person in her law school class and broke so many boundaries and got educated herself, it was just really exciting. And I wanted to, I was really happy my mom got to meet her. Yeah, thank you. That's exciting. You know, how about the next one? Oh, yeah, this has been a long time. So that's my grandma, all the way on the side seated. And that's my grandfather, the one that worked at the United Nations. And that little kid over there, that's me. I loved my grandparents. They both passed. And my grandmother had an arranged marriage with my grandfather when she was nine and he was 18. And they didn't understand because my grandfather said he's going to keep going to school and he's going to wait until she's older when she's an adult. He was very progressive for his time, I now realize. But my grandfather was able to achieve all those things, like work at the UN, become a professor because of my grandmother. And he would say that because she took care of my dad. And she would save up money, selling little things to pay my grandfather's tuition fees for school. So I just really like that because it's a rather progressive relationship for that time. And in the context of arranged marriage, too. Yeah, I miss my grandparents dearly, too. Yeah, now you're in Minnesota. So this is me in Minnesota. It's the land of 10,000 lakes. So we have more than 10,000 lakes. We have 14,000, 14,000 lakes. Yeah. And which lake is that? Lake Kahung? Yeah, which has now changed to it's an indigenous name of the day, Makaska, because Calhoun used to be, well, not a very nice man. I agree, I agree. So this is me wearing, oh yes. And then this last picture is me in Brooklyn on our sofa there. I think my mom, my mom or my grandmother had a sewed that sofa cover. And I'm wearing this top of a sewage. So yeah. Cute. Thank you so much for sharing the photos. That's just absolutely beautiful. Yeah, now you grow from a little cute Indian girl. And now you are a pretty serious prosecutor. And in Ramsey County, one of our biggest counties in Minnesota, and where our capitals in Paul seated, can you tell us about your, could you just share some thoughts and how do you like the job and what do you do? And what's your plan? Yeah. Yeah. I love the job. It took so much to get it. And I told you that I came to the University of Minnesota law school. I got a concentration in criminal justice. The school had just started offering it. And I worked for two federal judges and in Hennepin County for a district court judge where I got to see prosecutors and defense attorneys. And I grew up distrusting the criminal justice system. So surprised that I liked the prosecutors and that I thought trials were so much fun. And I wanted to do it. I wasn't sure if I could do it myself. But I wanted to learn. I ended up going over to the Minnesota Attorney General's office and doing both civil and criminal work. So getting a lot of time in the courtroom. I was in the division where you were in the courtroom the most. And then John Toy recruited me. He met me at an ACS event to join his office as a prosecutor. And it was my dream come true, you know? Because he mentioned earlier, he's the first Korean American top prosecutor in the country. And he's an immigrant. And he grew up in Minnesota and he dealt with some difficult things like people setting fire to his mailbox, people saying and doing things that weren't very nice because of his, you know, the way he looked in his family. And he said about creating a division that was, that is now 30% people of color. And many of our victims, our survivors and our witnesses, their immigrants, their refugees, their people that don't speak English well or with an accent or don't speak English at all. And I would have never known about this unless I actually did the job. And now I handle murder, sexual assault, domestic assault cases, everything in between. I work with those victims, right? I had a refugee from Iraq who was one of the victims in my case and we used an interpreter. I've learned to do so many things and it's so fulfilling because I feel like many times you don't realize why diversity of all different types is important in an office. But now that I'm here, I'm like, this is why I was meant to be here. So that when victims of crimes and I think all of us have been the victim of at least one crime in our life or know someone, whether it's domestic abuse or DWI, right, things like that. But to be able to advocate for victims who are scared and they're, they don't know what to do and they just don't understand the process, it's just so fulfilling. And then when you're able to help them feel safe, I had a sexual assault case where there was a seven year life, seven year old librarian girl and the family was a family of refugees actually. The family unit was created because they created it. The war in their home country had killed so many people they created their own family. We were able to hold the person that committed the sexual assault on the little kids accountable. And it was just so rewarding to know like, you can give a voice to the voiceless, the people that even our society or criminal justice system in the past hasn't done a very good job of advocating for. And so it's nice to like, you know, help little girls that used to look like me, you know, or how I used to look like. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for your service. And we really appreciate why people like you to work in our criminal justice system. And I admire prosecutors, I admire all litigators, particularly prosecutors, you know, you know, I went to law school and same law school, U of M. And I told my, when I did the trial practice for a year, my professor encouraged me to do litigation, but I told him there's no way I want to sleep. I want to have a pretty normal life. I want to have dinner every day at home. So I will only do a transaction, not a litigation, but I do admire the litigators, particularly litigation on behalf of the government and prosecutors. But I do have a question for you. I because I'm teaching a law course at U of M this semester. And one of the big topics I put up, given to the students was the American criminal justice system is fundamentally fair. And the student debated on this. It was a very heated debate. And the both party, both sides presented ample evidence to support their argument. The American criminal justice system is fundamentally fair. The other side obviously would argue is fundamentally unfair. So what's your assessment? What's your general comments on this? Our criminal justice system? It's interesting because if you asked me this question when I was a teenager, I think I would have given you a different answer than I would now. So there's a lot of problems in our criminal justice system, for sure. And the problems that we have in our society, they exist within the justice system, right? We have racial inequity, racism, sexism, the list goes on and on. But I also think about where we started from now. You know, so I talked about my grandfather. Under the British, there wasn't really a fair system. And now we have some big countries invading other countries in the world. And we have authoritarian countries where people will sometimes even pretend it's a fair process, but it's really not. The person in charge just says, I don't like this person. This person disagrees with me or they're getting a lot of political backing and I feel like they're a threat and I'm just going to throw them into jail or prison and kill them or maybe have a trial that's like 30 minutes with that's not really real or legitimate with actual evidence presented. So why do I say this? We have so many problems in the American legal justice system, but we actually know about them. We're talking about them and we're trying to do something about it. And it's so much better than what other countries in the world have. The fact that we're even able to talk about it tells us something. And I'm running for Hennepin County attorney. That's to be the top prosecutor for Minneapolis in the surrounding area. That's where George Floyd was murdered and where the officer that killed him, Chauvin, weren't. We're talking about that. We're trying to address it. And that was an awful, a horrible thing that happened. But what did prosecutors do? What did the justice system do? They held the officer accountable. They charged the case. They fully litigated it. They got a jury that was representative and the jury found the officer guilty. And then the judge sentenced him to prison and he's sitting in prison. That's the justice system working. So I think fundamentally it's fair, but we have so many things we need to fix. Very well said, Saraswati. I cannot agree with you more. And my students, they are obviously, they are in their early 20s, you know, liberal college students. They are, they have a lot of complaints. But they are all of them are extremely smart and passionate. But the debate is, I probably will reach the same, you know, conclusion. You know, when I, when I were in my early 20s, I went to seeing the system is so unfair. So many problems. But when you go older, when you work in the system, you want to be a change, if you want to be a change agent, you have to be part of the system and you have to accept the legitimacy of the system and try to improve it now, instead of radicalize, radicalize it. It's very well said. And you basically answered my next question. It's about the George Floyd and Derek Chauvin trial. It's, I get to have comment. I think that we are extremely proud to be a Minnesotan. And Minnesota is such a state, it's well managed, it's transparent, and it's civil and respect fundamental human decency and its fact matters in this state. And we still have a belief in right and wrong. So correct me if I'm wrong. It is Derek Chauvin was the first white police officer got convicted for killing a black suspect in the state Minnesota, isn't it? I think you're right that he's the first person, first white officer to be convicted of killing a black man. Yeah, I don't think he was a suspect. I mean, yes, there was a counterfeit $20 bill, but I mean, that's nothing in the context. Exactly. And we all talk about our early 20s. And early 20s, where were you in early 20s? You were in DC, right? I was. I was working in the in DC in this US Senate in the Russell building. That's where Hillary Clinton was Senate. She was Senator at the time. That's where she worked. And it was, I remember I had stars in my eyes, because all these people I saw on TV, they were walking the hallway. And one time we saw Obama, he had just been elected. And he was in the basement of the Dirksen building while they were getting his Senate office set up. And he got lost and asked for directions to the bathroom. And the black man intern that I was with, like nearly swooned. It was just, it was such an exciting time because I got to meet all these people that I read in the news, Senator Ted Kennedy at the time, and just realized like they were real people who had regular flaws or big flaws. But so many of them cared so much and that I could do it too. And so for everyone that's watching, if you want to run for office or just want to try for your dreams, go for it. Because what's the worst that can happen? You end up in the same place that you already are. But if you just take that chance, the life, your life trajectory could change. And that's what happened to me. Hillary Clinton gave me that shot by offering me that internship and my life changed. Yeah, bravo, bravo. So I was in Beijing in my early 20s by the way. And I was in college then in graduate school. But so many years have passed. And if you were giving you some advice to your early 20s, so what would you say? I would say, I know you feel awkward and you don't know where your life is going. And it feels like other people are doing really well because they say all sorts of wonderful things about themselves. But try not to think about other people. And if there's things that you like that they're doing, learn how they did it and then do it yourself. And the biggest thing is everyone feels fear. Everyone does. But the trick is to go and walk through that fear. And it'll be okay. And actually, even if you fail, that's part of the process. And it makes you better. And remember how you feel when you failed. So that when you rise up in whatever profession you're in, you reach your hand out and you help other people, even if they fail to help show them the way. Because we all are hopefully learning and growing. And this is life. It's trying things and doing well. And then when you do poorly, you learn from it. And then you end up doing even better. Wonderful, wonderful advice. And what you just said remind me that one of my favorite philosophers, Indian philosopher, Chris Namodhi, and one said that you are not responsible for the you exist in other people's mind. Now we're going to get to our final segment recommendation. So we want to hear recommendations from our guests. Let me start. And because I'm going to recommend the Chris Namodhi is my, you know, I'm not sure I told you about it. I'm a partisan, partisan Buddhist, but I also a big fan of Chris Namodhi. And I want to hear your recommendation. Is there any any book or movies that you want to recommend it to our audience? Sure. In terms of books, maybe this is a little selfish, but my grandfather wrote a book. Oh, it's called in search of self by Boglet Singh. And I didn't understand it when I was a kid. Like, why would he say in search of self? And my parents say I'm a lot like him. And now I understand. And it talks about India, colonialism, coming to the United States. And really the meaning of life and what is life worth living? I think as you get older, you start thinking about those things. I probably sound very old now. No, not at all. You're just something just a normal, very normal prosecutor. I have a profound thinking of human nature and have observed, you know, the life and the death and tragedy in life. I really appreciate that. In search of self by any old grandfather's first name. Yeah, Boglet Singh. Boglet Singh. Thank you so much. And we have only a minute left. I want to, I want, you know, as we said, you're running for Hennepin County Attorney and the biggest county in the state of Minnesota. And we have like a minute. Is there any message you want to tell us people, potential voters in Minnesota and in Hawaii? Because our station is in Hawaii. Yeah, yes to both. So my name is Sir Swati Singh, and I'm running for Hennepin County Attorney. That's to be the top prosecutor for Minneapolis and the South surrounding area. And so they handle murder cases, sexual assault cases, domestic assault cases, and everything in between, including carjackings. And I do exactly that. I take cases to trial, litigate them, right? Have all those sleepless nights, Chang, that you talk about because you stay up working. And my platform is police accountability, racial equity and public safety. And within the public safety aspect, it's addressing violent crime, but also anti Asian hate crime. I know we have just really a few seconds left. But I want to say that I'm the right person for the job, because I'm a prosecutor, I know how to do the job. I'm progressive. I bring my life experiences with me. And actually, Senator Klobuchar was the same age as me, 37, when she first ran for Hennepin County Attorney, and won. So she was 37 and she won. And I'm 37. And when I get elected, I'll be the first woman of color ever in the position. So it would be a historic election. I'm super excited. And people throughout the country, including Hawaii, can support me by going to my website, which is SirSwatiSing.com, and contributing. Everything helps. We have a $3 option all the way up to the $500 and more option. And also, following me on social media and spreading the word, we're looking for volunteers, especially folks in the immigrant community, because it's important to raise our voices up. And my mom, she doesn't speak English well, but she's so proud of me in doing all this work. And I want to show that we have value. And just because we have an accent doesn't mean that we're stupid or dumb, that we bring so much to the table. And she's a nursing aide. She was working throughout the pandemic. We just lift up our voices and show that we matter and that we're smart. And I'm just so excited about the campaign and so excited to do the show with you, Chang. Thank you, SirSwati. It's wonderful to have you with us today and hail to the prosecutor. Thank you so much for your service. Yeah, hail to our wonderful Senator Global Chair, our wonderful Senator Tina Smith. And thank you again for your service. And we are very excited to have you work as our Remedy County prosecutor and potentially for our attorney. And I just look forward to having you back on the show again, and we can celebrate. Thank you again. And this is a nation of immigrants. And our guest is SirSwati Singh, Remedy County Assistant Remedy County Attorney, running for Remedy County Attorney. Thank you. Aloha. See you. Aloha.