Freedom From Fear Awards: UCLA Student Sheds Light on Shadow Population

Freedom From Fear Awards: UCLA Student Sheds Light on Shadow Population

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New America Media, News Report, Caitlin Fuller, Posted: Jul 05, 2011

Editor’s Note: Editor's Note: The newly established Freedom From Fear Award recognizes people who put aside their fear of immigration laws and made a significant impact on immigrants and refugees. This is the second of six articles profiling some of the awardees. For a complete list of winners, visit the award's website.

The night before he announced he was undocumented on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, Freedom from Fear Award winner David Cho wrote a farewell letter to his friends and family in case he was deported once it became known that he didn’t have the papers to live legally in the United
States. “I didn’t know what would happen to me,” said the 21-year-old.
 
After his announcement, he said, this fear was replaced by a feeling of liberation.
 
The Freedom from Fear Awards, which commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides that mobilized young people to take down segregation in the South, honor 15 ordinary people who stood up for immigrants and refugees at great personal risk. Cho came out as undocumented at a rally for the DREAM Act during his second year at UCLA. 
 
“If I didn’t put a human face to [the issue], change wouldn’t come about,” said Cho.
 
Cho didn’t know he was undocumented until he asked his parents for his Social Security number when filling out his UCLA application. His father reluctantly told him that the family’s visas had expired after nine years of legal residence in the United States as a result of the family’s sponsor mishandling their renewal application. 
 
Cho did not tell anyone when he first found out about his immigration status. At the time, he had never heard of an undocumented Asian student speaking out on immigration.
 
At UCLA, he eventually joined the student group IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success), a support group for undocumented students. As he became more involved, he decided that he had to come out.
 
Cho’s family came to the United States from South Korea, pushed out by the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. As an elementary school student in South Pasadena, Cho struggled to learn English. Nonetheless, Cho mastered the language and graduated from high school with a 3.9 GPA. 
 
Cho worked 30 hours a week as an SAT tutor in order to pay his college tuition, as he was not eligible for financial aid as an undocumented person. He maintained a 3.6 GPA while working and also serving as the first Korean American and first known undocumented drum major for the UCLA marching band. 
 
He has continued his activist work since coming out as undocumented. He founded a new branch of the IDEAS group called ASPIRE (Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education). Since the group’s founding, four more Asian American students at UCLA have publicly come out as undocumented.

Forty percent of undocumented UC students are of Asian descent, according to the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of California. The Korea Times reports that there were approximately 170,000 undocumented Korean Americans living in the United States as of 2010. Yet too often, Cho says, the immigration issue is portrayed solely as a Latino issue -- both in Asian-American and mainstream media.

"There's pressure to showcase the good things in the [Asian-American] community, and hide the bad," Cho said.

Cho said that José Antonio Vargas, the Filipino American Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who recently announced that he was undocumented, has brought much needed attention to the issue of undocumented Asian Americans.
 
“We need to improve on engaging the Korean American and Asian American communities to support students in coming out [as undocumented],” he said. 
 
A staunch supporter of the DREAM Act, the federal bill that would provide a path to legalization for qualifying high school graduates enrolled in college or the military, he thinks the legislation is just the tip of the iceberg. “We should take it as a down payment for further reform,” he said, adding that he supports comprehensive immigration reform. 
 
Undocumented students, he said, are “a huge asset to this country.”  Cho praised the U.S. Senate for holding its first hearings the DREAM Act last week but remained cautious about what the outcome of the hearings might be. “While we’re hopeful, we’re also realistic,” he said.
 
Cho graduated from UCLA with a degree in international economics and Korean this spring, and will return in the fall to pursue a Master’s degree in public policy. His goal is to become a U.S. Senator.


The first Freedom from Fear Awards honors “ordinary people who have committed extraordinary acts of courage on behalf of immigrants and refugees -- individuals who have taken a risk, set an example, and inspired others to awareness or action.” The Freedom from Fear Award was created by philanthropic leaders Geri Mannion and Taryn Higashi, and administered and produced by Public Interest Projects. 


 

Comments

 
Anonymous

Posted Jul 5 2011

Senator Sessions states: New DREAM Act is Worse than Before

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has issued a statement highlighting 10 things Americans need to know about the newly introduced DREAM Act. On Tuesday, the Senate Immigration Subcommittee held its first ever hearing on the DREAM Act, but few Senators were in attendance because of conflicts with other committee meetings and votes on the Senate floor. Learn about the lies being published in the Liberal oriented press and that DREAM ACT is just part of a stealth Amnesty, which the open border heretics are trying to pass on the unaware public.


Bombard Senate phone switchboard—202-224–3121 and House—202-225–3121, and inform them you will not be manipulated into another clandestine Amnesty, disguised as the DREAM ACT.

In the release, Sen. Sessions said that the bill "would offer amnesty to over 2 million illegal aliens" and according to the Congressional Budget Office would add "more than $5 billion to the federal deficit". 1. The DREAM Act Is NOT Limited to Children 2. The DREAM Act Will Be Funded On the Backs Of Hard-Working, Law-Abiding Americans. 3. The DREAM Act Provides a Safe Harbor for Any Alien, Including Criminals, From Being Removed or Deported If They Simply Submit An Application. . Certain Inadmissible Aliens and ALL Deportable Aliens, Including Those From High-Risk Regions, Will Be Eligible For Amnesty Under The DREAM Act. 5. Certain Criminal Aliens—Including Drunk Drivers—Will Be Eligible For Amnesty Under The DREAM Act. 6. Conservative Estimates Suggest That At Least 2.1 Million Illegal Aliens Will Be Eligible For the DREAM Act Amnesty; In Reality, We Have No Idea How Many Illegal Aliens Will Apply.

7. The DREAM Act Does Not Require That an Illegal Alien Finish Any Type of Degree (Vocational, Two-Year, or Bachelor’s Degree) As a Condition of Amnesty. 8. The DREAM Act Does Not Require That an Illegal Alien Complete Military Service As a Condition For Amnesty, and There Is Already a Legal Process in Place For Illegal Aliens to Obtain U.S. Citizenship Through Military Service. 9. Despite Their Current Illegal Status, DREAM Act Aliens Will Be Given All the Rights That Legal Immigrants Receive—Including the Legal Right To Sponsor Their Parents and Extended Family Members For Immigration. 10. Current Illegal Aliens Will Get Federal Student Loans, Federal Work Study Programs, and Other Forms of Federal Financial Aid. This urgent information should be read by every American, who realize that illegal immigration is become out-of-control. For serious statistics, the true costs and the lies and propaganda from the Obama Administration go to www.NumbersUSA.com website.

If you haven't already done so, join your local TEA PARTY, as thousand of disfranchised Americans. This is possible the last chance to halt another mass amnesty or as the Liberal Democrats like to call it Immigration Reform. According to the Commerce Dept there are eight million foreign nationals with jobs, which should be in the hands of 13 million US workers.

In a report recently by CBS News there are some disturbing statistics that millions of Black Americans are living with depression-era unemployment rates. Blacks are not the only ones hurting, while 8 million illegal aliens have jobs. Unemployment rates are high among almost every class of worker, especially among Citizens, permanent residence, of Blacks, Hispanics, and teenagers. So why is Left side in Congress, using their power to give passage to the Dream Act, that will snowball into family members gaining residence through CHAIN MIGRATION and even more financial problems? The truth is irrefutable, that our schools are overcrowded with illegal alien children, including a law that says anybody who crosses the border, flies in by plane or enters by ship must be given health care, no matter they are uninsured. These are mandated laws that have been approved by Liberal Judges. These are laws forced on taxpayers and individual States such as Arizona, Alabama, Georgia that are fighting back as every American State is suffocating under the relentless streams of illegal—ECONOMIC—aliens, coming here to pilfer the Federal and state treasuries.

Anonymous

Posted Mar 13 2012

"If you haven't already done so, join your local TEA PARTY, as thousand of disfranchised Americans.."

Dear Anonymous before me. How dare you derail this beautiful article to push your hateful and divisive "aliens are taking over" Tea party politics down our throats. This shows how heartless the TP are towards other human beings who are less privileged than them.

Also thank you to David Cho for sharing your story and giving light to undocumented Asian Americans everywhere.

Anonymous

Posted Mar 13 2012

"If you haven't already done so, join your local TEA PARTY, as thousand of disfranchised Americans.."

Dear Anonymous before me. How dare you derail this beautiful article to push your hateful and divisive "aliens are taking over" Tea party politics down our throats. This shows how heartless the TP are towards other human beings who are less privileged than them.

Also thank you to David Cho for sharing your story and giving light to undocumented Asian Americans everywhere.

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