U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta receives the oath of office from Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on June 19, 2015. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/NLJ)

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who was born in India and arrived in the United States as a young child, was formally sworn in Friday as the first Asian Pacific American on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The son of immigrants who came to the United States in the early 1970s, Mehta was the embodiment of the American dream, several speakers at Friday’s ceremony said. Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who administered the oath of office, said he and Mehta came from communities that took “special pride in what today signifies.”