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Korean Americans Condemn White House Plan for Immigration

By April 4, 2007No Comments

March 30, 2007 Contacts: Eun Sook Lee, NAKASEC, 323-937-3703
Immediate ReleaseYuSoung Mun, YKASEC, 718-460-5600
Dae Joong Yoon, KRC, 323-937-3718
Becky Belcore, KRCC, 773-506-9158

KOREAN AMERICANS CONDEMN THE WHITE HOUSE PLAN FOR IMMIGRATION

(Los Angeles, CA) For weeks, the White House has been working on a set of immigration principles with Senate Republicans.Yesterday, these principles were leaked to the press.The following is a statement by the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and its affiliates, the Korean Resource Center (KRC) in Los Angeles, Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC) in Chicago and YKASEC-Empowering the Korean American Community (YKASEC) in New York.

“A few weeks ago, the American people were heartened by the leadership of Reps. Flake (R-AZ) and Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce a serious proposal for fixing our outdated and broken immigration system. By contrast, the White House and the Senate Republicans have produced an extreme and unacceptable anti-immigrant proposal,” said EunSook Lee, executive director NAKASEC.

Dae Joong Yoon added, “Family is at the core of immigration and of America. But the White House’s harsh and inhumane proposal essentially calls for its very disintegration by eliminating preferences for siblings and adult children and by putting caps on parents. It also provides no opportunity for undocumented immigrants, minus a few who are wealthy to become full participants of American society. Are we simply workhorses? Should we not be afforded basic rights? Where is the humanity in this plan?”

This proposal welcomes the sweat and labor of immigrant workers but denies them a path to citizenship or the ability to bring family members. It harkens back to the past when discriminatory laws that created bachelor societies within the Asian Pacific American community in the U.S. This is unacceptable and suggests that the White House is out of touch with the American public, said YuSoung Mun, executive director of YKASEC.

“Our communities will not accept this anti-family proposal from the White House. This is a reminder to Asian Pacific Americans that the current efforts for changing our immigration laws demand our attention and full participation. On April 30 – May 1, hundreds will be coming to Washington DC to remind Congress and President Bush that family is at the core of immigration and America,” said Becky Belcore, executive director of the KRCC.

The organization’s website is www.nakasec.org.

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