Update 1/13/12 2:33PM – Welcome, Multi-American readers! Thanks again to Leslie for featuring this post. I found out this afternoon that Steve Li is a member of Asian Students Promoting Immigrants’ Rights Through Education (ASPIRE) in the Bay Area, and any questions about him should be directed to that organization.

American media often frame unauthorized immigration to the US as a strictly Latino or Mexican issue, though that can be very misleading. In spite of the large numbers and the highly publicized work of activists such as Ju Hong and Tam Tran, the Asian undocumented population in the US still struggles to find a place in the immigration narrative.

According to Department of Homeland Security data, the majority of undocumented immigrants in the US still come from Mexico (estimated population of 6,640,000 in January 2010), though several Asian countries notably rank in the top 10 sending countries: the Philippines (280,000), India (200,000), South Korea (170,000), and China (130,000).

There are some groups of undocumented Asians that are even more “hidden” from the public discourse on unauthorized immigration. For example, the data do not show that some of the undocumented migrants from Latin America are also of Asian descent. Latin America has long-settled Asian populations, such as the Japanese in Brazil or the Chinese in Panama or Peru, who are subject to the same economic and social pressures that push people to migrate to el Norte. Mario, in the video above, is one example of this type. Continue Reading →