Undocumented Youths in U.S.

“We are undocumented not because of our own fault.”
            By Kwanwoo Jun

BROOKLYN/ MANHATTAN/ ALBANY, New York -- A high school senior in 1997, Jong-Min, a South Korean immigrant living in Brooklyn, was dumbfounded by an unexpected disclosure that he was undocumented – thus an illegal resident of the United States. It was a fact he had not known for nearly two decades while living in the United States.

Having grown up in America, Jong-Min, 31, believes he should be American. But legally, he is not. He does not exist in any official U.S. documents. The reality is harsh. For example, Jong-Min can be deported anytime. He declines to give his family name because he fears its disclosure can do harm to his undocumented parents -- let alone himself. He always uses his first name.

           Jong-Min was brought to the United States at age one in 1981 by his parents who were then on student visas. His parents later overstayed their visas and became illegal residents as well. Then after 16 years, at age 17, he found out his illegal status. Jong-Min, then an aspiring doctor, went to a hospital to apply for a volunteer work program. Hospital officials told him to submit a green card to verify his permanent residency in the United States. He remembered saying, “OK, I will go home and get a green card.”

At home, he called and asked his mother where his green card was. His mother, then working at a family-run grocery store, first said she could not remember where it was -- a lie. Jong-Min searched the house thoroughly but could not find the document. He called his mother again and asked her where his green card might be. She then admitted that there was no such document, saying, “Jong-Min, you don’t have one. You can’t do the program. You can’t tell anybody about this either.”

“I was like, ‘What?’” Jong Min said. “It was just shocking.”

Jong-Min then gave up his dream to become a pediatrician. He later went to the University of Tennessee and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor degree in sociology. But his college diploma did not help him find a job. Being undocumented, he has gone through tough times. Jong-Min cannot work legally. He cannot obtain a driver’s license because he has no social security numbers. He cannot receive federal loans or grants. He cannot travel abroad because he can be caught and deported. “Being undocumented is like living in an invisible prison,” he said, “You are trapped there behind these invisible bars.” Jong-Min now works at his family-run grocery store in Brooklyn.

           Jong-Min is one of an estimated two million young illegal immigrants in the United States. Undocumented youths are different from adult illegal immigrants. The youths were brought to the United States regardless of their wishes. They formed their American identity while growing up in the United States, while adult immigrants had already their identity formed in their motherland.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says that as of 2009, 10.8 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States. The number accounts for about three percent of the total U.S. population – estimated at 311 million this year by the U.S. Census Bureau. Various independent data shows there are about two million undocumented youths in the United States. The Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimates the number of the illegal residents under age 18 at 1.6 million in 2002. The Pew Hispanic Center, a non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C., puts the number at 1.7 million in 2004. The National Immigration Law Center, a Los Angeles-based research institute, says the nation sees about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school each year.

           Undocumented youths in the United States have been emerging as a pressing issue since 2001, when a group of lawmakers first attempted to introduce the so-called Dream (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which was designed to give legal residency and eventually citizenship to those who were brought young – age 16 or under – illegally to the United States if they attend college in the country or serve in the U.S. military.

          The act has been repeatedly reintroduced to Congress since 2001, but the legislation has failed because opponents say the act would only reward law-breakers, cause national-security concerns, increase taxpayers’ burden and raise questions about fairness among those who have immigrated legally to the country.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Dream Act in December 2010. But in the U.S. Senate, the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary for advancing to the floor. The Senate cast 55 votes for the legislation and 41 against.  “We were all just sad, depressed, confused and angry,” Jong-Min said, recalling the moment when he and his undocumented friends watched the Senate vote it down.

Though living back in the shadows, Jong-Min has been campaigning for undocumented youths in what he calls a special calling. “We are undocumented not because of our own fault,” Jong-Min said. “We want to change it for the better. We’ve

made a vow to each other that we will come back in couple of years to try to pass the thing again.”

As the legislation process dragged on in Congress, Dream Act advocates began knocking on the doors of the state legislatures to push for a similar bill in New York State. The New York State Youth Leadership Council, a non-profit group that advocates the bill, has pushed for the so-called New York Dream Act at the state legislature in Albany since early this year. The state bill, which is similar to the federal Dream Act, stipulates that beneficiaries of the bill should enter the United States at age 16 or under, be 35 years old or under at the moment of legislation, and carry no felony convictions.
Among the youth leadership council members is Angy, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Colombia. Angy is her first name. She refuses to disclose her family name in public for fear of being possibly deported. Angy was brought to the United States at age three by her parents.

Angy said in an interview that efforts for pushing for a federal Dream Act have not stopped. “The Dream Act has never died because the dream is still here and we are fighting for it,” she said. “We know the Senators that are for the Dream Act. They want to help introduce it again even if it is going to be hard to pass, and even if it’s not now. A federal Dream Act might pass later on. So, we don’t think it’s dead.”

Pro-immigration activists believe the Dream Act would help undocumented youths in many ways. One of the legislation’s goals is to help undocumented youths get state or federal aid and continue to study. Because a 1982 Supreme Court ruling allows undocumented students to attend public schools, their illegal status does not affect their study all the way up to high school, except college.

           Tatyana Kleyn, an assistant professor at the bilingual education program in The City College of New York, says undocumented youths are a resource for the nation to embrace.  “I see many undocumented students pass through The City College of New York and it breaks my heart that they will not be able to use their skills and degrees to enhance our nation and themselves,” Kleyn said. “We must do everything possible to make sure that the undocumented youth in our nation have a chance to study, work, live and dream in ways that every other U.S. citizens does.  They deserve that, and as a nation, we deserve to benefit from all they have to offer us too.”

           Kleyn this year published a book, titled “Immigration: The Ultimate Teen Guide,” to help teachers and students to discuss the pending immigration issues at high school classrooms. It’s full of discussion materials. “I found this book goes beyond Ellis Island and to the very real issues many immigrant youth face today,” she said. “So it's a book for everyone, because I see immigration as an American issue that nobody should ignore.” She said she supports the Dream Act.

            “Taxpayers have paid for their education from K(indergarten) through 12(th Grade),” Jong-Min said. “They want to become the next Bill Gates, next teachers, next lawyers and next doctors. Now all of sudden, at the age of 18, you say, (they should) ‘get out.’ It’s like you invested in these kids but you don’t get the reward back at the end of all of those years. You are just throwing money down on the drain.”

In a latest development in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., re-introduced the Dream Act in the Senate seven months ago. President Barack Obama has supported the legislation, but most Republican Senators still oppose the bill.

Conscious of the Republican critics who worry about possibly loosening national security, Reid has indicated that he would consider adding a workplace enforcement measure in the Dream Act that would require employers to use E-Verify, the government’s Internet-based work eligibility verification system. But Reid’s idea received a cool response from those who had sponsored the bill.

           As Congress procrastinates, the skeptical critics of the Dream Act still remain vocal and powerful.

           Opponents of the Dream Act argue that the bill would encourage and reward illegal immigration. Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that the Dream Act could be used as “a shield” for criminal gang members. In 2010, more than 1,300 of the 4,370 gangsters arrested were under the age of 30 and had yet to commit crimes serious enough to bar them from obtaining the conditional status offered under the bill, she said. “Unfortunately, most of the Dream Act proponents will not consider that, and are willing to sell out the most deserving young people to obtain amnesty for all,” Vaughan said in an e-mail interview last week.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington, D.C., said that the country had a history of failure in awarding amnesty to

 the illegal immigrants 25 years ago. Krikorian said that one-fourth of an estimated five million undocumented immigrants who received amnesty in 1986 should have been disqualified because of their fraudulent applications.

“We now have more than twice as many as before the last amnesty, and they’ve been promised repeatedly that if they hold out a little longer they’ll be able to stay legally,” Krikorian said in an article in December 2010 in National Review, a conservative New York-based biweekly magazine. “Any new amnesty, even if only for those brought here as children, will attract further illegal immigration.” He said that the amnesty recipients should not be put on a “path to citizenship” at all, but instead be given a time-limited work visa, indefinitely renewable so long as they stay out of trouble.

Krikorian also questioned the proposed age cap of 16 or under on the Dream

Act beneficiaries. “If the point is to provide amnesty to those whose identity was formed here then you’d need a much lower age cutoff,” he said. “I have a 15-year-old, and if I took him to live illegally in Mexico, he would always remain, psychologically, an American, because his identity is already formed.” He suggested the cap should be lowered to seven.

            Anti-immigration activists also say the Dream Act may just import poverty and cheap labor, be abused to enlist recruits to the unpopular military, create more economic and social burdens and discriminate against the American-born or legal immigrants.

           With little progress being made in the legislation of the Dream Act and the debate on the pros and cons underway, undocumented youths in limbo continue to suffer from

their illegal status in the face of ongoing arrests and deportations.

           Pro-immigration activists insist that as a transitional move before enacting the Dream Act, Obama should issue an executive order and suspend the deportations of undocumented youths who could benefit from the bill.

Obama has publicly dismissed the idea, arguing that the legislature should pass the relevant bill and then he should sign the bill.

But the Obama administration issued a memo in June, telling immigration officials to consider an amnesty for arrested students and would-be military recruits in a quiet and low-key approach to the politically sensitive issue. In August 2011, the departments of Homeland Security and Justice were in talks to initiate a review of about 300,000 deportation cases to possibly suspend the deportations if they have committed civil offences but been convicted of crimes.

           Frustrated and impatient, some undocumented youths have made an extreme choice: to take their own life in despair.

           On Nov. 25, 2011, Joaquin Lun, 18, who had championed the Dream Act, committed suicide at his home in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, in frustration over his illegal status, a local TV channel, Action 4 News, reported.

           Lun’s family say that on a Friday night, the teen dressed up in a suit and tie, kissed them, then went into the restroom and shot himself in the head, the local news report said adding they say the teen would get frustrated while filling out the immigration status in college applications, and he was frustrated when the Dream Act didn’t pass.

           Hours after hearing about the Texas teen, Jong-Min posted a 90-second-long video clip on a social networking site for the public, calling on undocumented youths to be patiently wait for the Dream Act to pass in the near future.

           “If you hold on another day or week month year or two years or how long it will take, we will eventually pass the Dream Act,” Jong-Min said in the video clip. “Please never give up never lose hope. I do not want another undocumented youth to lose the life over the broken immigration system. So please seek help if you need it.”

           Angy does not sit idle, either. She has recently launched an online counseling service for undocumented youths at the youth leadership council website. The Ask Angy blog (http://www.nysylc.org/category/askangy/) aims to serve undocumented youths who go through hardships and need friends to talk to and discuss problems with. She said the service was also exciting her. “Every time I saw an email labeled Ask Angy my heart skipped a little knowing someone out there was reading; someone out there cared enough to submit a worry or story,” she said in a post in October 2011. “Many times I’ve felt tired or overwhelmed but reading all these emails have provided me with strength to keep going. Many of these emails have helped me see that we are all connected through our struggles and stories.”

            In a post in February 2010, she advised an undocumented youth anxious to travel to California by air but so afraid of being checked by airport security and deported. “I haven’t boarded a plane since I came to this country; it’s still on my list of things to do,” Angy said. She then advised the inquirer to use local airports, not security-tight International airports, photocopy all of his IDs and passport and leave them with friends just in case something goes wrong. Her counseling ended with a following line: “You are not alone. Remember, the insecurities and fears you have, someone else is them having too. Don’t be afraid to speak out.”

She also shared her own sad family story with other undocumented youths. In a poem posted by her on Oct. 9, 2011, Angy was talking about her personal grief that she could not visit her sick grandmother in Columbia due to her immigration status.

“Every time you begged for me to come say goodbye, to please see you one last time, I covered my mouth so you wouldn’t hear me cry,” she said in the poem. “I’m sorry for not being there every step of the way. I’m sorry for not being by your side as you faced this alone.”

In another correspondence on Oct. 3, 2011, with an undocumented New York resident who introduced him as “illegal” Cesar, Angy said in her reply: “Please drop the I-word. No human being is illegal or will be illegal or was illegal. You are not illegal.”

Kleyn, a professor of The City College of New York, said it is important to understand what foundation the United States has been laid on in order to address this immigration issue. “So seeing that we nearly all descendants of immigrants is important,” Kleyn said. “Furthermore, we need to look at immigration issues from a larger lens, one that is transnational and also humane.”

Kleyn said the country needs legislation to solve the problem. “The undocumented youths of our nation are a huge resource that we need to embrace, and of course the way we can do this is by passing the federal Dream Act, and the state acts in the meantime,” Kleyn said.

Samuel P. Huntington, a late American political scientist, who wrote “Who Are We?” about the crisis of the American identity, said immigration and assimilation are an essential part of the American history. “America has been in part an immigrant nation, but much more importantly, it has been a nation that assimilated immigrants and their descendants into its society and culture,” Huntington said in the book. “The assimilation of different groups into American society has varied and has never been complete. Yet overall, historically assimilation, particularly cultural assimilation, has been a great, possibly the greatest, American success story.”

At a recent rally held at Union Square in Manhattan, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-NY, who supports the Dream Act said: “If the whole world could see we don't care where you come from and that if you come here and we can help you become better people and better citizens, then the whole world will have more respect for us.”

                                                          # # #


FACT BOX

        By Kwanwoo Jun
        Undocumented youths living in the United States face various challenges in their everyday life. Their problems mostly stem from a lack of social security or proof of residency in the United States. Herewith a list of barriers that Jong-Min says he and many other undocumented youths have to experience every day.

1. They cannot travel abroad because they can get caught and deported by the immigration officials. They may fly domestically when less strict immigration rules are applied to local airports. But the risk of being caught and deported always exists.
2. They cannot drive. All states except Utah, Washington State and New Mexico require applicants to prove citizenship in applying for a driver's license.
3. They cannot vote. Only citizens are allowed to vote.
4. They cannot work legally. Even with their college degrees and diplomas, they are still unable to find employment within their fields. Most, if not all, job opportunities require social security and/or immigration paperwork, including citizenship.
5. They are not eligible for financial aid and scholarships when applying for or attending college. Most of them have to pay the full out-of-state tuition rates, which makes it very difficult for anyone to attend and finish college.
6. They generally do not have access to health insurance because most health insurance requires proof of residency. So, they have to go to free clinics or pay out of pocket. But students can have health insurance while attending college.
7. They don’t report it to the police even when they've been victims of violent crimes or even when they've been ripped off or sexually harassed by their employers because they are generally afraid of law enforcement due to their illegal status.
8. They often have to deal with tension often caused by mixed-status families where the younger sibling has U.S. citizenship because of being born here, while the older sibling is undocumented.
9. They may still have difficulty speaking English, if they've arrived here not young enough to quickly master a new language.
10. They may feel pressure to drop out of school and help out their parents who usually work menial jobs and don't make enough money to support the family.

                                                                         # # #