WBEZ | Immigration

Afternoon Shift: Immigration as women's issue, Urlacher's retirement and insurance for vets

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:45:00 -0500

Is immigration a women's issue? Maria Pesqueira of advocacy group Mujeres Latinas en Acción says it is. Niala looks at why 1.3 veterans are uninsured. Finally, a national look at the Chicago public school closings.

View the story "Afternoon Shift: Immigration as women's issue, Urlacher's retirement and insurance for vets" on Storify

Deportation protesters use ‘lockboxes,’ slam Durbin

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:25:00 -0500

Police sawed through plastic pipes on Tuesday to pry apart seven protesters at an immigration detention center near Chicago. The protesters, all in the United States without legal permission, demanded a halt to deportations as Congress considers allowing most of the country’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for legal status.

President Barack Obama’s administration has increased deportations to roughly 1,100 a day, a record pace. Removals have continued as the Senate Judiciary Committee works on a sweeping immigration bill drafted by a bipartisan group that includes Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). The protesters called on Durbin to push Obama to suspend the removals.

“We’ve had over a million families separated because of deportations,” said protester Stephanie Camba, 22, a Filipina who said her parents brought her to the United States when she was 11 years old. “This bill is not enough if it’s not going to stop deportations. It should be deportations being stopped first.”

The protesters, backed by about 100 supporters, held each other using chains and locks inside three-foot segments of polyvinyl chloride tubes — civil-disobedience setups knowns as “lockboxes.” The protesters sat down in a street to block vehicles from the center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Broadview.

ICE holds immigrants awaiting deportation in the center before loading them into vans and buses that carry them to flights from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

A statement from Durbin’s office in response to the protest says the senator was “instrumental in pushing the administration” to allow many young unauthorized immigrants to apply for work papers and a deportation reprieve under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama policy initiated last year.

Durbin, the statement adds, is also working on the immigration bill as a member of the Senate panel. “The hope is that next month the full Senate will begin debate on this common-sense, compromise proposal that will provide millions of immigrants with an accountable path to citizenship,” the statement says.

After police cut through the pipes, Broadview officers arrested the protesters, charged them with disorderly conduct and released them.

Chip Mitchell is WBEZ’s West Side bureau reporter. Follow him on Twitter @ChipMitchell1 and @WBEZoutloud, and connect with him through Facebook and LinkedIn.

Immigrant organizers lobby local governments on national immigration bill

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:09:00 -0500

Chicago immigrant organizers are leading a national fight to preserve the so-called Diversity Visa program, and they’re starting at Chicago’s City Hall.

Alderman William Burns (4th) will introduce a non-binding resolution Wednesday to support keeping the endangered Diversity Visa program as part of the U.S. immigration system. The program is slated for elimination under the proposed immigration bill currently being debated in Congress.

“I think it’s really important that Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform,” said Burns, “but that we keep in elements of our current immigration system that have been helpful to making sure that we have diversity in the pool of people that immigrate to the United States.”

The Diversity Visa program issues 55,000 visas each year to countries that have sent few immigrants to the U.S. In recent years. It has accounted for half of all African immigration to the U.S. Burns crafted the resolution with the help of the United African Organization, based in Chicago.

“It’s all about relationships,” said Alie Kabba, Executive Director of the United African Organization, “and if we can generate the kind of support we already have here in the City Council, that will translate to support with the Congressional delegation, given the fact that we are all in this together.”

Kabba said he has corralled about 20 African organizations across the U.S. to come together as a network for the first time. The groups are focusing their energies on fighting the elimination of the Diversity Visa program. He said the resolution in Chicago will be the first to address this issue at the city level, and he expects organizations to replicate the effort in their respective locales.

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus have also voiced concern about the elimination of Diversity Visas under the immigration bill.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. Follow her @oyousef.

Afternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashion

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:12:00 -0500

Niala talks with CEO Kevin Willer about the anniversary of 1871 and how it has grown in the last year. Wailin Wong and Jimmy Prude weigh in on the tech community in Chicago. Then, Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore ask the question: What inspires your fashion style?

View the story "Afternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashion" on StorifyAfternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashionNiala talks with CEO Kevin Willer about the anniversary of tech hub 1871. Wailin Wong and Jimmy Prude weigh in on the tech community in Chicago. Then, Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore review the Art Institute's fashion show. Call 312.923.9239 or tweet using #AfternoonShift.Storified by · Fri, May 03 2013 11:11:28Happy Birthday, 1871: Afternoon Shift spends the hour assessing Chicago's tech chops with Chicago Tribune business reporter Wailin Wong and tech community organizer Jimmy Prude. The startup hub 1871, housed in Chicago's Merchandise Mart building, turns one this week. According to a report released earlier today, the organization created 800 jobs. Kevin Willer, who runs the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, the non-profit that operates 1871, reflects on 1871's growth and where it is headed. What is Chicago's reputation for tech?1871 celebrates its one-year anniversary with a survey of accomplishments and a look forwardThe 1871 technology incubator celebrates its one-year anniversary on Friday with 225 startups - most of which are growing, though largely...Celebrating the 1st year of @1871Chicago w/ @GovernorQuinn @kwiller @NewWorldVC @vprillinois @starterleague @IMSA_ http://pic.twitter.com/lF3w790zIhISTCoalitionHappy 1st birthday @1871chicago. May 2, 2012 was an incredible milestone for Chicago's startup community. Thrilled to still be a part of it.Melissa LedererTech news: Chicago Tribune business reporter Wailin Wong, tech community organizer Jimmy Prude and Kevin Willer, head of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, take the pulse of Chicago's tech community. Wailin looks at a new hub designed to bolster startups in the biological sciences. Jimmy talks about the need to foster tech talent at the elementary school level. Are your kids learning tech skills at school? 1871 tech co-op created 800 jobs in first yearThe roughly 200 startups working out of the 1871 collaborative hub at the Merchandise Mart created 800 jobs during the space's first year..."Investing in talented people creates jobs" -- @GovernorQuinn at @1871Chicago #innovation #startupsISTCoalitionTech industry mobilizes on immigration: Tech giants like Facebook and Google have spent a combined $13.8 million to lobby for the expansion of temporary visas and green cards for high-skills foreign workers. Former Googler Josh Mendelsohn co-founded lobbying outfit Engine Advocacy to give startups a bigger voice in the immigration debate. He tells Niala what he wants to see in new immigration legislation. How reliant is the tech world on foreign workers?Tech companies driving the lobbying on immigrationFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on March 7. (Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP) WASHINGTON - Seven...The myth of America's tech talent shortage, and what it should mean for immigration reform. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-myth-of-americas-tech-talent-shortage/275319/Jordan WeissmannEducation, Entrepreneurship and Immigration: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part IIA report released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that tracked the educational backgrounds of immigrant entrepreneurs who were ke..."The Walk": This morning WBEZ's Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore attended the School of the Art Institute's fashion show dress rehearsal. The official runway show, dubbed "The Walk, and the scholarship benefit dinner happens tonight. Alison and Natalie review the student show, which is celebrating 79 years. What is your fashion inspiration? #thewalk #saic #fashion2013Liz Averyheaded to cover the #walk @SAIC w/ @natalieymoore. asking student designers about their fashion inspirations - what are yours? tell us!alison cuddy#SAIC Fashion ShowAlanna Lamma

Berwyn relaxes towing policy that hit immigrants especially hard

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:10:00 -0500

A suburb west of Chicago is relaxing a tough car-towing policy because of its effects on immigrants.

An order signed by Berwyn Police Chief James D. Ritz says the “towing, impounding and seizing of a vehicle” operated by an unlicensed driver “may be decided by the use of officer discretion unless the vehicle is uninsured.”

Berwyn officials say the order softens enforcement of a 2007 ordinance that allows the city to charge the unlicensed motorists $500, not including towing and storage costs, to recover impounded vehicles.

Berwyn was among several heavily immigrant Chicago suburbs that enacted strict towing measures before proposals to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws stalled in Congress in 2007. The ordinances hurt immigrants who, because of their unlawful presence in the country, didn’t qualify for an Illinois license.

“We still don’t condone people [breaking] the law and driving without a license,” said Michael Cimaglia, a Berwyn police commander who met with immigrant advocates to hammer out a policy. “However, we’ve modified the policy so it’s not as hard on some of the residents.”

Berwyn now allows unlicensed motorists to turn over the car to a licensed driver or park it.

Immigrant advocates said Berwyn officials heard a message from Latino residents. “We’re here to stay,” said Julie O’Reilly Castillo of the Interfaith Leadership Project, which pressed for the policy. “Respect us and be a little bit flexible because there are things beyond our control that leave people vulnerable.”

Under an agreement with the advocates, Berwyn is also putting its entire police department — nearly 200 employees — through a three-hour training session focused on ethnic sensitivity. Cimaglia says the goal is more compassion for the city’s immigrants.

About 60 percent of Berwyn’s 56,657 residents are Latino, according to U.S. census figures. That population includes thousands — the exact number is unknown — who lack authorization to be in the United States.

The state of Illinois, meanwhile, is planning to begin issuing temporary driver’s licenses to unauthorized immigrants this fall.

Chip Mitchell is WBEZ’s West Side bureau reporter. Follow him on Twitter @ChipMitchell1 and @WBEZoutloud, and connect with him through Facebook and LinkedIn.

Study finds ample U.S. graduates to fill STEM jobs

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:16:00 -0500

As Congress considers a makeover of the country’s immigration policies, they’ll discuss an expansion of the H-1B temporary visa program for high-skilled foreign nationals. The H-1B program is popular among employers, including several in Illinois, who have long asserted that U.S. colleges and universities are not producing enough graduates in the science and technology fields.

But a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-profit which receives about 30 percent of its funding from labor unions, finds that there are more domestic graduates in those fields than the market can accommodate. The study looks over time at domestic graduates in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (or STEM), as well as temporary guest worker inflows on the H-1B, L-1, and Optional Practical Training visas, where large shares of visa holders work in IT jobs.

“There are, as we found before, a large supply of STEM graduates,” said Hal Salzman, a professor at Rutgers University and one of the authors of the report. “We just can’t see in the numbers a failure of U.S. colleges and universities to produce sufficient supply,” he said. Salzman co-authored the paper with professors Daniel Kuehn of American University and B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University.

H-1B workers account for thousands of jobs in Greater Chicago, which historically has been one of the top five hubs in the nation for workers on that visa. In federal fiscal year 2011 more than 11,000 skilled workers came to Chicago on H-1B visas, with India-based IT consulting company Infosys employing nearly one in ten of them as computer programmers. Suburban Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg also accounted for an additional 4,300 H-1B workers. Average wages for H-1B workers in these cities ranged between $63,000 and $69,000.

The study finds that the domestic supply of students in STEM fields responded to industry demand as expected during the 1990s and into the early 2000s, but that a shift occurred in 2004 when companies began shifting their search for talent overseas.

“If you look at what happened in the lead up to the dot-com bubble to the peak, you can see that wages rose steeply, unemployment was fairly low, right up until the 2001 peak, and the result was that the number of students pursuing computer science overall doubled,” said Salzman, “it seems that students are very responsive to market signals.”

The authors find, however, that after the recovery from the dot-com recession, employment in the IT sector began picking up, but wage growth did not resume. They attribute this to an increasing reliance on foreign workers for those jobs. “The guest worker supply, understandably, coming from low-wage countries, is very plentiful, (and) will continue almost despite whatever wage levels are here because they’re still better than what (they) would be in their home country,” said Salzman.

One result of the divergence between demand and wages for IT workers, said Salzman, is that many American STEM graduates are opting to work in other fields. The study finds that one-third of computer science graduates and nearly half of engineering students fail to go into jobs related to their degrees because they couldn’t find jobs, or because they felt they had better career prospects in other fields.

“It’s basic Econ 101,” said Salzman. “If you bring in a lot and flood the market, it depresses wages (and) lowers job quality. And we’ve certainly seen that in interviews we’ve done over the years, where people think what used to be good jobs, particularly in IT, are no longer high-quality jobs. They think they’re unstable, wages have not gone up and they counsel their kids to go elsewhere.”

The STEM report comes as Congress picks over a proposed new immigration overhaul. The legislation by the so-called Gang of Eight would dramatically expand employers’ access to skilled, temporary foreign workers, while also imposing additional controls. The H-1B visa program, currently capped at 85,000 visas annually for highly-educated foreign nationals, would over time grow to 180,000 visas. It would also prohibit large companies from staffing more than half of their workforce with H-1B visa holders, and would require companies to pay higher wages to those workers.

Very few legislators in Washington question the assumption that U.S. companies have been unable to locate qualified, STEM-educated American workers. Two separate bills proposed in the Senate in recent months have both looked at increasing the H-1B cap. Large companies such as Microsoft have been particularly vocal about the need to change immigration policies to allow for more temporary, skilled workers.

“I don’t think the argument here is that foreign workers aren’t good or they aren’t productive,” said Lowell. “I think the argument is yeah, I think we want foreign workers we want employers to have access to, but the question really is, in what amount, and is more better?”

Lowell and the other study authors said the devil will be in the details of any changes to immigration policies. They point out that while the immigration bill does propose higher wages for H-1B workers, it would still allow these workers to be paid 20 percent less than the average wage for those industries.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. Follow her at @oyousef and @WBEZoutloud.

Gutierrez, Ryan push immigration overhaul in Chicago

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:43:00 -0500

A Midwestern political odd couple teamed up in Chicago Monday to build momentum for an immigration overhaul in Congress, even as some lawmakers have urged a slowdown following last week’s bombings at the Boston Marathon.

United States Reps. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, and Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said they hope to usher an immigration reform bill through the GOP-led House by the end of the summer.

A sweeping immigration bill that would provide a path to legalization for millions of illegal immigrants was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week. Gutierrez said he and Ryan are in the process of drafting a House bill.

“[N]ow it is time, at the end of the day, after they sweat and they toil, that they can receive the same satisfaction of being a citizen,” Gutierrez said.

Ryan, meanwhile, stressed that changing the “broken” immigration system goes along with quintessentially Republican ideals. He pointed to his own family’s immigration from Ireland during the Great Famine.

“There is no other economic system – no other immigration system – that has done more to lift people out of poverty than the American free enterprise system and the American immigration system that we have here,” Ryan said.

The congressmen offered few specifics about the contours of a House immigration bill, but they did highlight several possible components.

The measure would include an electronic verification system that would allow employers to check the immigration status of would-be workers, Gutierrez said. He also stressed that U.S. officials should crack down on people who overstay their visas, and wants to implement a guest worker program that includes safeguards to protect immigrants against exploitation.

Ryan, for his part, stressed that an immigration overhaul would strengthen national security by beefing up the country’s borders.

In the wake of the Boston bombings, allegedly perpetrated by two ethnic Chechen brothers who immigrated to the U.S. legally, some Republicans have raised concerns about moving forward with an immigration overhaul too quickly.

But Ryan said he’s not concerned about fellow Republican withdrawing their support, and cautioned against making a “knee-jerk assessment” about how the Boston bombings might play on Capitol Hill.

“We need a modern immigration that helps us not only protect our border, but protects national security in all of its aspects,” Ryan said. “So if anything, I would say this is an argument for modernizing our immigration laws.”

A bill in the U.S. Senate would provide a path toward legal status for millions of illegal immigrants, provided they pay a fines and back taxes. Those immigrants could be eligible for citizenship after 13 years. The bill would also provide billions of dollars to beef up border security, and would impose an electronic verification system for employers.

But some groups have taken issue with the Senate bill, saying it may not provide enough protections for some foreign workers. Others have complained it would abolish visas for immigrants from countries that are underrepresented in the U.S.

Conservative legal group challenges Cook County immigration policy

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:02:00 -0500

Invoking the Boston Marathon bombings, a national conservative group has filed a lawsuit aimed at a Cook County ordinance that requires jail personnel to disregard federal immigration detainers.

Washington-based Judicial Watch says the county has no legal right to ignore the detainers, which are U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests that local jails hold specified individuals up to two business days beyond what their criminal cases require.

President Obama’s administration says the detainers, which help ICE put the inmates into deportation proceedings, are crucial for focusing immigration enforcement on criminals.

Cook County officials say detainers also erode community trust in local police. In 2011, the County Board approved an ordinance that halted detainer compliance by the county’s massive jail. ICE abruptly lost convenient access to hundreds of immigration violators each year. Lawmakers in other parts of the country, meanwhile, approved bills modeled after the policy.

The suit, which claims federal law preempts the ordinance, asks Cook County Circuit Court to strike down the local measure and compel Sheriff Tom Dart to comply with the detainers. The suit accuses Dart of “failure to carry out his legal duties under both federal and state law.”

At a Monday press conference Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton pointed to last week’s news events. “In light of the Boston Marathon bombings, there is a national-security component to these detainers by ICE.”

Authorities say two Chechen immigrants — one a permanent-resident visa holder, the other a naturalized U.S. citizen — are suspected of having planted the bombs that exploded April 15 in Boston.

Judicial Watch is representing the suit’s plaintiff, Chicago resident Brian McCann, who is the brother of a pedestrian killed in a 2011 hit-and-run collision in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The alleged driver, a Mexican immigrant named Saúl Chávez, had a DUI conviction. He was arrested and charged with the hit and run. A Cook County judge set the bond at $250,000.

ICE suspected Chávez was in the country illegally and slapped a detainer on him. But after the county enacted the ordinance, Chávez posted $25,000 — the required 10 percent of the bond. He walked free and went missing.

“Dart is thumbing his nose at the federal government and replacing federal immigration priorities with Cook County’s own immigration policy,” Fitton said. “Releasing these criminal aliens before they can be taken into custody by ICE endangers the public.”

Fitton echoed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton, who have said the Cook County ordinance threatens public safety.

That claim was the subject of a WBEZ investigation that found that inmates freed as a result of the ordinance had not reoffended or jumped bail more than other former inmates had.

Dart’s office, in a statement late Monday, pointed to the sheriff’s support for allowing the county to honor ICE detainers for inmates charged with violent offenses and inmates with a number of prior convictions.

Chip Mitchell is WBEZ’s West Side bureau reporter. Follow him on Twitter @ChipMitchell1 and @WBEZoutloud, and connect with him through Facebook and LinkedIn.

Non-Latino groups say immigration bill undercuts their communities

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:05:00 -0500

Wednesday’s unveiling of a comprehensive immigration reform bill confirmed many fears of immigrant groups that largely seek permanent status in the U.S. through existing immigrant visa programs.

The 844-page Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 was crafted by the so-called “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of senators. While many Asian and African community leaders in Chicago said they had yet to read the document thoroughly, they were aware of key changes in the document because of a conversation they had with Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL) last week, in advance of the bill’s release.

“I have to be happy there is a bill, and I think that this is a beginning and a start of something where we do need to really fight very hard for our families,” said Tuyet Le, Executive Director of the Asian American Institute.

Le said she’s concerned that the elimination of family reunification visas for siblings and married adult children will particularly hurt Asian-Americans. “I think we rely on our family network for social support,” she said, mentioning that nearly half the people stuck in a backlog for family reunification visas are from Asian countries.

The bill also eliminates the diversity program, which awards 55,000 visas to immigrants from countries that are underrepresented in the U.S. In recent years, Africans comprised between 30 and 50 percent of those visa recipients. “This program was one of the only few options that Africans have to come to the US as immigrants,” explained Alie Kabba, Executive Director of the United African Organization.

“The elimination of the diversity program is reversing the clock in terms of African migration to the US,” said Kabba, “and it also undermines one of the seminal achievements of the Civil Rights movement, which was the democratization of the US immigration system to ensure that there was indeed a diverse stream of immigrants coming to the US.”

Kabba said his organization will fight to make sure that the principles behind the diversity visa program are incorporated into a new merit-based point system in the new bill. Under that system, those seeking citizenship can accrue points based on a range of factors, including their English language proficiency, their level of education, whether they specialize in high-demand professional fields, and civic involvement. Points will also be given for people in the family reunification categories that would be eliminated, namely siblings of U.S. citizens and adult children of citizens. The bill currently awards some points for people who come from countries that have few immigrants in the U.S.

“The whole configuration of the immigration system should be fair and should be humane, and it should not be just using immigrants as a tool for economic development,” said Jerry Clarito, Executive Director of the the Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment. Clarito said the fundamental problem with the bill is that it shifts away from a family-based immigration system to one based on U.S. industry needs.

“The immigration system should be really fair and humane. It’s not about just skills,” said Clarito. “Otherwise, we are creating an elitist form of immigration, and this is really dangerous because it will trickle down to even the value-formation inside America, that they only value people with high skills. And we know in reality that’s not the case.”

The bill is expected to provoke extended debate before it comes to a vote.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. Follow her at @oyousef and @WBEZoutloud.

Temporary business investors worry immigration bill leaves them out

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:04:00 -0500

Jong Sung Kang looks like he’s been cooking all his life. At his restaurant in a nondescript Schaumburg strip mall, Kang chops refrigerated pork, washes dishes, and tosses vegetables onto a large stove with great efficiency. But in fact, Kang has only had this restaurant for eight months. It’s his second business in the U.S. -- the first was a nail salon that he and his wife opened in 2005, soon after they arrived from their native South Korea.

“The business was pretty good,” he said through a translator, “so we managed to live with no difficulty. But since the economy went down, it’s really tough.” Kang said business started slowing down about two years ago. “We couldn’t make money, so actually my wife went to a different shop to work and make some money,” he said, “and we used that money to pay our employees at our own nail salon.”

Kang says any rational businessman would have sold that salon, but he couldn’t because his family’s legal status in the US depends on maintaining his own business.

Discussion leading up to the introduction of a comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. Senate early Wednesday has largely focused on disagreements over a pathway to citizenship for people here illegally. But there’s concern over whether it’ll address those immigrants like Jong Sung Kang who are here legally, awaiting permanent status. In some cases, he and other immigrants on temporary visas have poured vast sums of personal money into the U.S. economy in the hope that eventually, they’ll be given a pathway to citizenship.

Kang’s family came to the U.S. after his sister-in-law sponsored them for a green card. He said he knew that the petition for a family reunification visa could take more than a decade to be processed. But they would be processed faster if his family were already living in the U.S., rather than waiting in South Korea. So Kang opted to bring his wife and then-five -year-old son to the U.S. on a temporary worker visa known as the E-2 Treaty Investors visa.

“Before the time comes for my [family reunification] visa I want(ed) to adjust my life into the new situation, so that’s why i chose the E-2 visa,” Kang said.

The U.S. issued about 30,000 E-2 visas last year, almost 45 percent of which went to foreigners from Asian countries. It’s a two-year, temporary visa for people from any of the eighty countries with which the U.S. has commerce and navigation treaties. It requires the visa holder to put substantial personal savings into a business. As long as they keep the business going, they can renew their E-2 visas indefinitely.

Kang estimates he poured about $300,000 into maintaining his legal status here: half of it to open the nail salon; $80,000 to open the restaurant; $17,000 to acquire and renew the E-2 visa; and additional money just for day-to-day survival. He said his considerable savings came from selling his home in Seoul, South Korea.

Like many other immigrants who are sponsored by their family members, Kang doesn’t know how much longer he’ll have to keep throwing money into this pit, because he doesn’t know when his green card will come: it could be years. Still, he says he doesn’t regret his decision to come to the U.S.

“It’s not easy to live here, but I (would) still like to live here,” he said. “The U.S. has a better education system, better environment. So, you know, I would like to stay here.” But some wonder whether the U.S. is doing itself a disservice by allowing these temporary investors to tread water indefinitely.

“I think the E-2 visa is a good example of a true entrepreneurial visa,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration lawyer and professor at Cornell Law School. “We should try to make it easier for people who want to do that to come to the United States more easily in the future, and to be able to get a permanent green card.”

An outline of the immigration bill does propose easing the way for entrepreneurs, but Yale-Loehr says lawmakers often only think about people in high-tech industries rather than the owners of nail salons or restaurants, like Kang.

“We spent tons of money to keep our status,” said Kang. “Right now people are talking about immigration reform and people are talking about a pathway to citizenship. I understand that, but also there should be a way to support people like me waiting in line for (a) decade.” At the very least, Kang hopes a new bill won’t make things any harder for his family.

In the meantime, he says he’ll keep trying to turn a profit and renew his E-2 visa until he gets a green card.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau Reporter. Follow her at @oyousef.