New York: US Vice President JD Vance on April 14, acknowledged the contributions of his Indian American immigrant in-laws to the United States, highlighting the need for placing the interest of the United States above the interests of their country of origin.
Speaking at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia, Vance, who is married to Usha Bala Vance, described his in-laws as “great people” and “great contributors to the United States of America.”
Usha Vance was born in San Diego County, California, to Hindu parents, Lakshmi and Radhakrishna Chilukuri, both Telugu Indian immigrants who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s from Andhra Pradesh.
Her father is a mechanical engineer from IIT Madras and a lecturer at San Diego State University, and her mother is a molecular biologist and provost at the University of California, San Diego.
Usha Vance, who is a Yale- and Cambridge-trained litigator, was instrumental in JD Vance’s campaign run and currently serves as his trusted confidante, or a “spirit guide,” as she puts it. She kicked off her support for his office run at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, delivering the introductory address for her husband, JD Vance.
During the address, Vance highlighted the significance of prioritizing the interests of the country you live in and argued that it does not matter if a person is a first-generation immigrant or whether his family has been in the United States for nine generations.
He said, “One of the responsibilities that we must expect of citizens... is that you have to think about the best interests of the country, and not the country you came from beforehand, and not of any sort of, any group that you came from, you've got to think of yourself as an American.”
He continued, “The system only works if everybody thinks of themselves as an American.”
Substantiating his argument, Vance recollected a conversation he had with his “wonderful” father-in-law, about an event Vance attended during his campaign for the Senate. Vance pointed out that a Ukrainian American got “really agitated” when Vance called for an end to U.S. funding of Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war.
However, Vance described the Trump administration’s refusal to provide military aid to Ukraine a decision he is proud of, highlighting the need for prioritizing the interests of the United States before the interests of the person’s country of origin.
