Undocumented Korean-American Organizer Talks Immigrant Rights

Glo Choi representing HANA Center at Asian-American Action Day in Springfield, Illinois, on May 15, 2019.
Glo Choi representing HANA Center at Asian-American Action Day in Springfield, Illinois, on May 15, 2019. Courtesy of HANA Center
Glo Choi representing HANA Center at Asian-American Action Day in Springfield, Illinois, on May 15, 2019.
Glo Choi representing HANA Center at Asian-American Action Day in Springfield, Illinois, on May 15, 2019. Courtesy of HANA Center

Undocumented Korean-American Organizer Talks Immigrant Rights

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About two weeks ago, a group of four DACA recipients rushed the stage at the Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Texas, to interrupt Joe Biden as he was answering a question about immigration reform. “We are DACA recipients,” they shouted. “Our lives are at risk!” After a minute, during which all of the assembled presidential candidates looked on silently, local security escorted the protesters out of the event. The protesters were representing the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, a group of Korean-American immigrant rights and service organizations.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, about 16 percent of the Korean immigrant population, or roughly one out of every six Koreans in the United States, is undocumented. Worldview‘s Ashish Valentine talks to a local Korean-American community organizer with the HANA Center, Glo Choi, about the stakes of immigration reform for the Korean-American community and Glo’s own story of growing up undocumented.