1.65 million, or 1 in 7 Asian/Americans are undocumented

WHILE MOST of the media reports about Donald Trump's pending plans to deport undocumented immigrants, most of the attention has been on those people who entered the U.S. over its southern border.

Little focus has been on immigrants from Asia, the largest source of immigrants in recent years, surpassing the number of immigrants coming from Latin American countries.

The Center for Migration Studies (CMS) and and the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) have published estimates of the Asian undocumented population in the United States for 2014. The total number of Asian undocumented ranges from the Institute's1.46 million to the Center's 1.65 million. The blog putting those numbers together was written by Karthick Ramakrishnan and Sono Shah for AAPI Data and released last week.

According to those agencies, Asian undocumented immigrants account for about 14 percent of the total undocumented population in the United States. Another way to look at it is about 1 out of every 7 Asian immigrants is undocumented. 

It's important to note that the figures cited by CMS and MPI are from 2014 data. In the closing years of the Obama administration, the disparity between unauthorized immigration from Asia and Latin America grew even wider. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the number of undocumented people has grown beyond the numbers shown in the accompanying graph.

RELATED: Trump's plans for deporting undocumented immigrants

The figures released by AAPI Data are significantly higher than earlier estimates of 900,000 undocumented Asians.

In most states, Asians make up relatively small portions of their total undocumented population. Estimates show Hawaii, Alaska and New Hampshire as the only states which Asians make up more than 40 percent of the state undocumented population.

The percentage of California's undocumented population is only. 12.75 percent but the state has most undocumented Asian immigrants with 385,000.

CENTER FOR MIGRATION STUDIES, 2014

The U.S. undocumented population has fallen below 11 million for the first time since 2004, according to a CMS report released last month. The report says the total U.S. undocumented population continued to decline in 2014, and has fallen by more than a million since 2008;

“Despite the claims of an ever-rising, out-of-control US undocumented population,” said Donald Kerwin, CMS’s Executive Director, “the number of undocumented has fallen each year since 2008. In addition, the number and percentage of foreign-born persons with legal status has increased. These trends should be applauded by partisans on all sides of the immigration debate.”

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A glimpse at Trump's plans for deporting undocumented immigrants

The AAPI community will be impacted by President Trump's deportation strategy.

THE WORST FEARS of the American immigrant community may be coming true after details of Donald Trump's plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants were revealed today in draft guidelines from Homeland Security Sec. John Kelly to immigration officials.

UPDATED FEB. 22 to include White House response.

Even though Administration officials say the strict immigration enforcement will focus on those undocumented people who have broken the law, according to some immigration advocates, that could cast a much wider net if you consider entering the U.S. without documents or overstaying your visa "breaking the law.“

"President Trump’s plan for mass deportations is an affront to our values as Americans, and will strike fear in our immigrant communities that will harm our economy and public safety," said California's Sen. Kamala Harris, herself the daughter of immigrants. "These guidelines imply that all immigrants should be treated as criminals, regardless of their background or lack of criminal history, and will drain our local law enforcement resources because it makes them responsible for enforcing federal immigration law."

Of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., about 14 percent, or about 1.45 million to 1.65 million are Asian/Americans. Another way of looking at it is about 1 our of every 7 Asian immigrants is undocumented, according to the Center for Migration Studies and the Migration Policy Institute.

The memos, which still have to be given final approval by the White House, are guidelines to agents in the field to implement two executive orders signed by Trump on Jan. 25 intended to deter future migration and drive out more illegal migrants from the United States.

One memo instructs ICE agents to ignore Obama’s memos on immigration priorities that targeted only recent arrivals and convicted criminal migrants for deportation. Instead, migrants who simply have been charged with crimes but not convicted would be prioritized for deportation. The guidelines also allows ICE agents wide discretion in deciding who to deport and considers anyone in the United States illegally to be subject to deportation.

Despite the vow by President Trump to prioritize criminals for deportation, the executive order is so broad that anyone who committed even a minor offense, such as a traffic violation or jaywalking, could be deported. The order also applies to those who may have misrepresented their status to obtain work. 

The Trump Administration has outlined a mass deportation regime targeting all immigrants, including those on student visas, work visas, and the undocumented, for deportation enforcement, stated the lawyers of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

In response to journalists' questions, White House press secretary Sean Spicer sought to downplay fears about its impact. He denied the threat of "mass deportations," saying that Trump simply wants to "take the shackles" off government officials handling deportations "and say, 'You have a mission, there are laws that need to be followed, you should do your mission and follow the law.'"

The AAAJ statement also said the memos greatly increase the probability of tearing mothers and fathers from their children, leaving families with no main breadwinner, and forcing those who remain to pick up the pieces left behind from inhumane policies and enforcement efforts. 

"The enforcement memo seeks to promote fear of immigrants and orders the ICE Director to take funds from programs used to serve any undocumented immigrants – including immigrants who are trafficked and victims of crime – to this new office that will only further demonize immigrants and stir up hatred," says the AAAJ statement.

There is one ray of hope in the memos -- they leave in place Obama’s 2012 executive action that protected 750,000 people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. The fate of the policy, known as DACA, has been hotly debated within the White House, according to Reuters. Trump said in a news conference Friday that DACA was a “very difficult subject” for him.

The ICE memo also states that immigrants will not be afforded rights under U.S. privacy laws and the hiring of 10,000 more officers to "get the job done," but doesn't say where the money will come from to pay for the additional personnel.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the recent profiling of Muslim and South Asian Americans in the travel ban, we are in a resurgence of xenophobia and hate that is being fueled by the Trump administration.

"Advancing Justice opposes the administration’s agenda of mass deportations and scapegoating of immigrants that are designed to create a wedge in American communities and marginalize communities of color," concludes the AAAJ statement.

“If we attack our immigrant community members, our neighbors, our friends and our colleagues, we will never be the country we aspire to be,” said Harris.

Turns out, 'Superstore's' Filipino/American character is undocumented

Reprinted from AsAm News
FOR THE FIRST TIME on network TV, a regular character is being depicted as an undocumented immigrant, reports the Inquirer.

Filipino/American Nico Santos plays Mateo on the NBC comedy Superstore, which already broke ground by introducing Mateo as gay.

In the Olympic episode which aired recently in prime time right after the Olympics' closing ceremony, Mateo learns for the first time he is undocumented.

Nico Santos

It’s a good bet Superstore will return to this plot line in the future, although NBC has not confirmed this.

RELATED: Asians-on-TV revolution continues into 2016

Define American, a nonprofit which strives to improve the portrayal of immigration in the media, posted the above clip on YouTube. In the description beneath the video, Define American wrote:

“On the premiere of season 2 of NBC sitcom, Superstore, Mateo, a gay character from the Philippines, discovers that he is an undocumented immigrant. In humorous form, he discovers that the green card he has is fake. This strains an already contentious relationship with Glenn, his manager. While Mateo tries to convey this fact to Glenn, his boss; he is supported enthusiastically without real comprehension about his status.”

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Undocumented Asian immigrants eligible for DACA. not taking advantage of program

Asian/Americans demonstrated in support of President Obama's immigration reform policies that were being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court last Spring.

Reprinted from AsAm News

Annette Wong, Chinese for Affirmative Action
 Director of Programs, speaks at a DACA press conference
in San Francisco .

MUCH CONFUSION and uncertainty may be overwhelming undocumented immigrants seeking a path to citizenship, reports New American Media.

Last month’s 4-4 split decision in the U.S. Supreme Court was a blow to DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) and the expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) programs.

Still in effect is the original DACA program which protects eligible undocumented immigrants from deportation for two years and allows them to work legally in the United States. Those that qualify must have entered the United States before age 16 and be under the age of 31. Expanded DACA would have eliminated the upper age limit.

RELATED: Asian/Americans condemn SCOTUS  ruling on immigration

Many of those who were under the original DACA program must now renew their application as their two years is nearing an end. However, with the uncertain political climate, some have expressed fears that they may put themselves in jeopardy if the new president ends DACA.

“There is no evidence of this,” said Sally Kinoshita, deputy director of Immigrant Legal Resource Center. “There have been numerous programs like this, and there is no evidence of the government going after you.”

Since 2012, 728,000 have received DACA, however researchers say Asians have been severely underrepresented in the applicant pool.

Only 18,000 people from South Korea, the Philippines, India and Pakistan have applied.

RELATED: Asians are part of the immigration debate

Among eligible Filipinos, just 24 percent have applied. The application rate among eligible Indians is 21 percent, and just 17 percent among eligible South Koreans have applied for DACA. The Chinese American application rate is so low it didn’t make the list of the top 20 countries of DACA applicants.

RELATED: Dreaming with the American dreamers

The accompanying graph from the Center for American Progress compares the application rate of those from Mexico to those from South Korea.

Some blame a cultural stigma attached to being undocumented for the low application rate among Asians. Others point to a language barrier with Asians in the U.S. having the highest rate of limited English-proficiency. Efforts among AAPI groups to increase the application rate have so far not been successful.

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Woman sentenced for smuggling South Asians into U.S.

Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez was escorted from the courtroom.

A GUATEMALAN woman was sentenced last week to three years in federal prison for conspiracy and human smuggling by bringing Asian Indians through an elaborate network that brought them through Central America and Mexico and into the U.S.

Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez, 36, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala and later pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented migrants into the U.S. for profit and human smuggling in the Southern District of Texas. Umanzor-Lopez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas. 

She is expected to face deportation proceedings following her release from prison.

At the plea hearing in Houston and in related court documents, Umanzor-Lopez admitted that between January 2011 and her arrest in Guatemala on Feb. 4, 2014, she and other conspirators recruited individuals in India who were willing to pay large sums of money to be smuggled into the United States.

For their smuggling operations, Umanzor-Lopez and her co-conspirators used a network of of exploiters to transport groups of undocumented migrants from India through South America and Central America and then into the United States by air travel, automobiles, water craft and foot, she admitted. Umanzor-Lopez also admitted that many of these smuggling events involved illegal entry into the U.S. via the U.S.-Mexico border near McAllen and Laredo, Texas.

Three other members of the conspiracy have also been convicted and sentenced, and a fourth remains a fugitive.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks, or present grave humanitarian concerns. 

Asians are part of America's immigration debate

Pew graphic

WHILE MUCH has been written about our country's "immigration problem," most of our attention has been focused on the United State's southern border and the immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

A large part of Asian America are of the mindset that our country's immigration dilemma  has nothing to do with them. Well, let me tellya...


In recent years, the immigration of undocumented has taken a new twist. A study released this summer has found that the U.S. has seen a higher level of Asian immigration --surpassing the immigration of Latinos.

About 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in the U.S. in 2010, according the latest census data. Hispanics are up 31 percent, or 370,000.
Department of Homeland Security, 12 percent of the undocumented, or 1.2 million, are from Asia; 40,000 of these are under 30; under the Obama administration, over 250,000 undocumented immigrants have been deported to their Asian home countries.

Asian 'Dreamers' speak out

THE VIDEO "Why We Rise" is new documentary short featuring three brave young Asian New Yorkers who reveal what it's like to grow up without having legal immigration status. Their struggles and their strength are on full display as they come out of the shadows and into the light.

"Why We Rise," which provides a unique glimpse into the lives of real individuals affected by immigration reform, will remind you why the immigration movement is so important, not only for Latinos, but for the Asian American community as well.

The video was taped by Brian Redondo and Corinne Manabat with the support of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Why We Rise features members of AALDEF's undocumented youth group RAISE (Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast).

Join these RAISE members in their fight for change at raiseourstory.tumblr.com.

Antonio Antonio Vargas

Oscar consideration?

ONE OF the most visible undocumented immigrants is Filipno American Jose Antonio Vargas. His story about how he came to this country, went to college and eventually became a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter was turned into a documentary which may get an Oscar nomination according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The film, "Documented" is reportedly being promoted by Silicon Valley's Mark Zuckerberg to push for amnesty legislation. 

He moved out of the shadows in 2011 with an essay in The New York Times Magazine and ever since then, has worked towards immigration reform and amnesty for people like him who didn't discover his immigration status until he was a teenager.

Vargas' next film will "tackle quote-unquote 'whiteness' in America -- what it means to be young and white in post-Obama America."