'This Is Our Home': Asian Dreamers Fear Deportation In Virginia

ANNANDALE, VA—It's snowing outside as Virginia residents count down the days until Christmas. But in at Annandale's National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, residents of the Asian-American community are counting down for another reason. As Christmas gets closer, time is running out for Congress to pass a DREAM Act following the Trump administration's announcement to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

DACA, implemented by the Obama administration in 2012, gives undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children two-year renewable deferred action from deportation. President Donald Trump eliminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, on Sept. 5, cutting off all new applications and providing a six-month window for renewal applications from recipients whose permits were set to expire between Sept. 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018. A study done by the Center for American Progress found an estimated 122 DACA recipients lose their protections every day in this time frame.

The Asian-American community has been a lesser known beneficiary among the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients affected by the program's ending. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 7,310 DACA recipients come from South Korea, 2,640 from India, 15 percent from South Korea, 740 from China and 70 from Vietnam.

Areas with a large Asian-American presence like Northern Virginia have felt the shockwaves of the program ending. Jung Bin Cho, who lives in Fairfax County, is one of many South Korean recipients who will become at risk for deportation. "We grew up in the American culture. We speak English. This is our home," he says. "We want to be able to contribute to society."

Another recipient, Jung Woo Kim adds that they are contributing to society with the ability to legally work and pay taxes in the U.S. "We are contributing in this country. We are paying taxes," he says. "It's not amnesty. It's not free."

Huong Nguyen, who has a green card and comes from Vietnam, says she can sympathize with undocumented youths who have made Northern Virginia their home like her. Advocates like Nyugen are pushing for a "clean" DREAM Act, meaning a path to citizenship for DACA recipients without a provision for funding the border wall, detention centers, interior enforcement agencies or the E-verify program. "The government promised them a pathway to citizenship and all of a sudden you take that paperwork away," she says about the decision to end DACA.

Passing the DREAM Act as soon as possible would benefit undocumented immigrants like Maro Park of Fairfax, whose DACA status expired earlier this year. Park told Patch he was unable to afford the $495 renewal fee and planned to save up and pay while he has a grace period. Now the grace period is gone and he is eligible to renew. For this reason Park announced he was suing the Trump administration for the rights to renew his DACA protections.

Park and his family came to the U.S. when he was nine. His parents attempted to become legal residents but were among 100 Koreans targeted in a green card scam during the 1990s, according to The Washington Post. The full reality of living undocumented didn't hit him until high school when he learned he could not afford college like his friends at W.T. Woodson.

Today his brother is a DACA recipient protected for two more years, while his parents can become eligible for green cards when his American-born sister turns 21. He says a "clean" DREAM Act will mean his parents wouldn't be targets for deportation until they can get green cards.

"If my parents are sent back to Korea, they can’t come back — and I can’t visit them, in fear that I can’t come back to my homeland," Park told Patch. "I won't be able to see them for more than 10 years under the current immigration law."

What happens next with the push for a DREAM Act?

The best chance for the DREAM Act passing would be attaching it to a must-pass piece of legislation, such as a budget bill. But that won't happen this year, as Congress secured enough votes Thursday to pass a short-term spending bill, avoiding a government shutdown until Jan. 19, 2018.

Attaching a DREAM Act provision to the bill would have required enough legislators to withhold votes from the spending bill. But even Democrats that have voiced support for passing the DREAM Act have said they would not force a vote at the expense of a potential government shutdown, The Washington Post reported.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) faces re-election next year and represents a state with a significant amount of government workers. "I will exercise every bit of leverage I can for the Dream Act, but if there is a vote that would lead to a shutdown, that’s where I draw the line,” he said, according to The Post.

Others such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) withheld their votes for the DREAM Act among other issues. "It’s absolutely unconscionable that Republicans are leaving these items out of their bill to fund the government," said Feinstein in a statement Thursday. "Given the lack of any realistic plan to pass the Dream Act and long-term CHIP funding, it’s my intention to vote against the continuing resolution."

The fight for the DREAM Act won't end with 2017. Congress can still take up legislation through March 5, 2018. But until then, DACA recipients like Cho will be wearing buttons reading "122" reminding lawmakers of the young people becoming vulnerable to deportation everyday.

Pictured Yoon Kim, 32, of Los Angeles, right, holds a sign urging "Congress Must Act Now" as supporters of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, know as DACA, rally outside of the White House, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017. President Donald Trump will end a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought into the country illegally as children and call for Congress to find a legislative solution. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the changes Tuesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)