I am blessed beyond the curse,
for His promise will endure
and His joy is going to be my strength

A dream act student speak up 2

I was born in Korea and until I was eleven years old, life was simple. Then when I turned eleven, my family lost everything we had and filed for bankruptcy. A year later, my parents divorced. Left with my mom and older sister, we could barely survive in our home country. On July 25, 2001, my mother made the fateful decision to immigrate to the U.S. We came because we had few choices left and were seeking a better life.
Once we arrived, we faced an added set of challenges because of our immigration status. As a senior in high school, I learned that my visa had expired and that I was now living here without status. While my friends talked about colleges, I worried about whether or not I could even go to college. It didn’t seem to matter how hard I had studied in high school — I would not have access to educational opportunities that most people take for granted.
I am not like my fellow students. I am unable to get a legal job, to obtain a driver’s license, to receive financial aid. Worst of all, I’m afraid of being deported. I have nightmares about ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents knocking on the door to arrest my mom, sister, and me. In one dream, ICE agents chased after me in the darkness. As they surrounded me in a corner to arrest me, I woke up in horror. I couldn’t go back to sleep. Every day, I search for a way out of these wicked nightmares.
One of the ways that I face my fear is by speaking up.
I have become politically active by supporting immigration reform campaigns. Especially activism regarding the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant undocumented immigrant students a pathway to citizenship. Right now I am involved in Students for Fair Consideration and the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, and the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles. I learned to speak in public, to share my story to members of Congress, and to rally with my peers.
Today and every day, I fight for my rights and that’s why I’m marching to Washington, D.C. at the March For America along with 100,000 people across the country. I want to be heard. I want President Obama to know that comprehensive immigration reform is vital to our community and our nation. We want to see a bill pass this year, in 2010.
You can still sign up to be at the March For America! Bring your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors. Please share this story with your friends. Use this march to make a big impression on Washington.

Immigration stories are a cornerstone of America’s historical narrative. From grade school we learn of the Pilgrims’ trans-Atlantic journey to flee religious persecution and of “a mighty woman with a torch” who greeted European immigrants by the millions to Ellis Island. In these stories, tolerance and generosity are singularly American virtues that confer our country’s greatness.

Unfortunately, incomplete immigration stories linger in the present day, obstructed by opposition from a loud and persistent few. As a result, 11.8 million undocumented immigrants live in America’s shadows – they struggle to finance their educations as students, are exploited as workers, and are encumbered by an ever-present fear of deportation as families.

In a recent Huffington Post entry, Will Perez wrote that immigration reform “is of particular concern to Latinos, since 75% of undocumented immigrants are from Latin America.” However, the problems engendered by our immigration system affect a vastly diverse immigrant population. It is estimated that 10 percent of Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are undocumented, and among the AAPI groups, Korean Americans are affected at the greatest rate, at 20 percent.

The history of Korean immigration to the U.S. is one variation on the American immigration narrative. Immigration began in the late 19th century, as Koreans came to work as laborers in Hawaii, but the bulk of it occurred after 1965 following the repeal of the Asian Exclusion Act. Legions of Koreans came to America in search of freedom from an oppressive political regime and opportunity for economic mobility. Nearly a quarter million Korean Americans are undocumented as the result of this promise of a better life coming into conflict with the realities of the immigration system.

Undocumented Korean American college students have been especially vocal in the fight for immigration reform. The stories of the measures taken by these students and their families to support a college education give the push to pass reform a special sense of urgency. Their hardship extends well beyond their ineligibility for financial aid. A huge question mark looms over their post-graduation plans – without a Social Security number, how are they to find employment? On February 1, one Korean American student reiterated these frustrations and spoke of his aspirations to become a professor before hundreds who had gathered at a Los Angeles church for an immigration town hall. And Ju Hong, an undocumented student from the Bay Area, has come out publicly about his status and blogs regularly on immigration issues.

As the immigration reform movement escalates in size and intensity, undocumented Korean American students will continue to make their voices heard. On March 21, over 100,000 people from every corner of America will come together in Washington D.C. to show their support for immigration reform in a “March For America,” and Korean Americans from California to New Jersey will be among them.

Eric is an undocumented Korean American student at an Ivy League university. He has taken the school year off in order to work and save money to pay for college; he waits tables at a Japanese restaurant 7 days a week, 12 hours a day on weekdays, and 13 hours a day on weekends. Despite his busy schedule, Eric will be coming to Washington on March 21 to march for immigration reform because, as he tells it, reform is not only his dream, but is “the dream of thousands of fellow immigrants who work hard to become American citizens in the land of opportunity.”

Immigration reform cannot wait, and the Korean American community will be present in Washington standing alongside other immigrant groups to encourage our legislators to take the action that America needs.

Thanks Simon!

On Thursday, President Obama held meetings on immigration reform with immigrant advocates and labor and religious leaders, with Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham, and with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He came out reiterating his “unwavering” commitment to comprehensive immigration reform.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/opinion/13sat3.html

Most people think about Latinos when the conversation turns to illegal immigration, however there are more than 1 million undocumented Asians living in the U.S.

Young Sun Song’s older sister is one of them. She became undocumented in 2000, but didn’t realize it until four years later.

Song’s sister and her husband immigrated to the U.S. from Korea on the husband’s student visa in 1997. He attended seminary in Iowa and Song’s sister lived as his dependent until she decided to go to school as well. She had to get her own student visa to take classes, but after spending only one semester in school, she quit.

“That’s when she lost her status,” Song said.

“No Cuts, No fees, Education must be Free!”

Pictures

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Born in Seoul, Simon Cho sneaked into the United States illegally with his mother and sister 14 years ago, slipping through a border crossing near Vancouver, B.C. His search for the American dream began with the sort of furtive move that he now relies on in the mayhem-filled sport of short-track speedskating, which he mastered during years of training at the Arlington-based Potomac Speedskating Club.

Cho, 18, now a U.S. citizen, will make a triumphant return to Vancouver in February as a member of the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in the Winter Games. But his journey has been anything but smooth.

Until recently considered an up-and-comer on the cusp of moving into the country’s super elite, Cho has struggled to qualify for coveted Olympic grants that would help offset annual speedskating costs of nearly $40,000. To meet his sport’s heavy training demands, Cho dropped out of high school after his sophomore year.

Last year, his parents sold their small, take-out restaurant, Kasey’s Seafood in Upper Marlboro, merely to pay the bills.

“It doesn’t matter for the rich people, but I am not rich,” said Cho’s father, Jay, who moved his wife and daughter into a rental apartment with their son in Salt Lake City, where Jay Cho took a part-time job. “If you don’t have money, it’s very tough to have the American dream.”

Simon Cho, meantime, said public schools in Maryland and Utah — private school was out of the question — would not accommodate his full-time commitment to the sport.

Despite the myriad sacrifices, Cho did not expect to qualify for the five-person U.S. men’s short-track Olympic team during the September trials in Marquette, Mich.

till 17, Cho was considerably younger than most of the top athletes in the sport, a wild discipline requiring supreme quickness, speed, strategy — and experience. Five-time Olympic medal winner Apolo Ohno, considered one of the best in the world, is 27.

“When I say nobody thought I would make the team, literally nobody thought I would make it,” Cho said during a phone interview from Salt Lake City. “Not even me.”

‘He was super good’

After arriving in the United States to work in 1993, Jay Cho did not intend to bring his family from South Korea without the proper paperwork, but the wait for green cards was seven years, and he missed his family. In 1996, he met his wife, daughter Anna, then 2, and Simon, then 4, in Vancouver. They stayed for a week in a motel, then made their way without incident across the border.

Helped by more relaxed immigration regulations at that time, the family obtained green cards by 2001, and all became U.S. citizens by 2004. After several years in Chicago and Harrisburg, Pa., where Cho worked as a software programmer, the family moved to Laurel, seeking better training for Simon. Since taking up the sport at age 3 in his home country, he had shown promise.

“He didn’t know whether he liked it or not, but in every competition, he got first place,” his father said.

In an event sponsored by the Georgetown University College Democrats, Rev. Charles Currie, S.J., the president of the Jesuit Association of Colleges and Universities, addressed the audience and was joined by Juan Gomez (MSB ’11), an undocumented student whose parents are from Colombia, and Matias Ramos, an immigrant from Argentina and board member of the United We Dream network.

The three speakers advocated for the safe passage of the DREAM Act. The bill would grant undocumented students that arrived in the United States at or before the age of 15 the opportunity to gain conditional residence to attend college or serve in the military for two years, and then gain permanent residence.

“The idea of immigration reform is being discussed in campuses throughout the United States, and appears to be the defining question of this generation,” Ramos said.

Currie spoke of the symbolism behind the name of the legislation.

“As the name recognizes, higher education is essential for achieving the American Dream that immigrants to this nation have sought since the foundation of this nation,” Currie said.

Gomez spoke of the embarrassment he felt as all of his friends applied and were accepted to elite colleges in the United States.

“I realized that the situation had caught up to me,” Gomez said. “I didn’t even have a [driver’s] license, and felt like I had to lie to my friends, so they wouldn’t know I was undocumented.”

Currie provided the perspective of a documented citizen.

“You can read all about detention centers, what happens, but it passes over your conscience,” Currie said. “When you meet people, it becomes so much more real.”

The speakers then acknowledged the difficulty of passing the bill in Congress. Due to the fact that the DREAM Act is most likely to be packaged with comprehensive immigration reform, the legislation is likely to fail due to the current political atmosphere in Washington, they said.

Both Gomez and Ramos informed the audience that they had been given orders of deportation from the government.

“They haven’t carried them out yet, and luckily, our friends in the Senate have passed six-month reprieves, but should anything happen to that, I would have to leave, which is a scary thought,” Gomez said.

Ramos plans to lobby Congress to pass the DREAM Act with the United We Dream network. The United We Dream network sponsored the DREAM Action Week from Feb. 22 to Feb. 27 to raise awareness among Americans.

“This is stage one. There are marches going on in Los Angeles, Chicago and Wisconsin,” Ramos said. “The second stage is a march in D.C., starting on March 10.”

Ramos also spoke of a plan to declare March 10 “Coming Out of the Shadows Day.”

“[People can] show who they really are, to encourage people to reveal their status to the people they know,” Ramos said.

Currie concluded the discussion by warning against a quick fix for the problem.

“Be in this for the long haul. These issues are complex — you have to be willing to stay at it,” Currie said.

GUCD organized the forum as part of its Immigration Week.