According to Lily Huang, who is affiliated with the Student Immigration Movement, “you can’t talk about immigration without talking about Asian Americans.”  On October 28, 2010, the Asian American Resource Workshop hosted the Immigration Rights Panel 101 at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center.  Joining Lily Huang were three other panelist: Dimple Rana (Deport Diaspora), Amy Leung (Chinese Progressive Association), and June Beack (Neighborhood Legal Services.  The topics of focus were deportation, detention, and the Dream Act.

Many families come to the US in hopes of a better future, but, unfortunately, some are undocumented.  As a result, they could face deportation.  Often, when families get deported, they become separated.

Steve Li exemplifies this situation.  Li is currently in detention and is awaiting deportation to Peru, where he has no family or friends, while his parents await deportation to China.  Li’s parents left China to Peru because his family did not agree with the government policies, and unfortunately they had to flee Peru because of political instability.  They came to the US on a tourist visa which expired in 2002 and was denied when they applied for political asylum.  Li is one of the many young people who grew up in the American culture, excelled in academics; however, his future is limited by the US immigration laws.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, also known as the DREAM Act, is enacted, will make changes to the current immigration laws.  The Dream Act will allow young people like Li, who did not make the decision to live in the US undocumented but calls the US home, to be granted to live in the US.  To qualify for the Dream Act, one must be 15 years old or under when they were brought to the US, must be in the US for more than 5 years, and show good moral character.

For more information on the DREAM Act or immigration rights or to become more involved, please check out www.simforus.com, www.aaaw.org, www.cpaboston.org, or www.deporteddiaspora.org.