Asians see discrimination in US immigration reforms

ASIANS may not account for the large majority of illegal immigrants in the United States but are in the forefront of protests of what they see as increasingly discriminatory moves to regulate immigration. In recent days, dozens of Asian groups joined mammoth Hispanic-led protests from California to the grounds of Capitol Hill demanding better treatment for immigrants amid plans for a draconian crackdown on illegal immigration.

The groups are concerned that the Senate, currently debating immigration reforms, could adopt key provisions from the House bill, including one which basically allows the police to detain suspects first and verify citizenship status later. "Now how would an officer come to such a presumption: would it be because the person `did not look American? Would it be because the person had an accent?` It would disproportionately impact the Asian American community," Hong said.

No, they don't know or care whether you're in the top 5 percent of your university rankings or that you left your high-paying job back home to get a better education with all good intentions.

Led by the Chinese, some one million of the 14 million Asians in the United States are illegal immigrants. There are 1.5 million Asians in the backlog of applications for permanent residency status or citizenship.

Holy cow! 1.5 million in the backlog. Can you guess when your turn is going to be when you apply for permanent residency? Remember the numerical limit per year? Bottom line my friends, there are lots of problems here too. Worst still, even if you come through legal immigration channels, you will have very limited rights. It will take a while to get a credit history which basically determines what or how much spending power you can have. It will take a while to get used to driving here and get a license. Sometimes you may have a tough time getting a driver's license based on state laws, increased paper work and scrutiny. These are things that the recruiters back home don't tell you when they hire you for the job.

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