Out of the Shadows: An Asian Immigrant Activist Steps Forward to Help His Community Seize New Opportunities

Jong-Min You sat down in front of his home television, ready to tune into President Barack Obama’s executive action address on immigration.
Out of the Shadows: An Asian Immigrant Activist Steps Forward to Help His Community Seize New Opportunities
Jong-Min, 34, an undocumented immigrant who has been in the U.S. for most of his life, inside his family owned convenience store in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 8. 2014. Min is currently in the process of receiving a green card and wishes to go to law school. Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times
Annie Wu
Updated:

NEW YORK—Jong-Min You sat down in front of his home television, ready to tune into President Barack Obama’s executive action address on immigration.

He didn’t know what to expect, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He narrowly missed out on past opportunities for obtaining temporary status. As he listened to Obama’s speech, Mr. You thought of all the other illegal immigrants he met during his activist work, who like him, had been waiting years and years to become accepted by the country they called home. Would this time be it?

Mr. You arrived in the United States with his parents 33 years ago, when he was a year old. He only knows of life in America: spending his formative years in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, helping out in the small bodega his parents rented, while studying at the city’s top public high school, Stuyvesant High.

But in his junior year, “my world was turned upside down,” Mr. You said. Hoping to chase his dream career of becoming a pediatrician, he signed up for a hospital residency program. The program asked for his green card information.

“I'd been here for so many years. I thought I had it,” he said. He went back to his parents’ store and asked his mother for it. She said he didn’t have one. His parents had come from South Korea on student visas, but they expired when Mr. You was 5 years old.

Jong-Min You, 34, an undocumented immigrant who has been in the U.S. for most of his life, inside his family owned convenience store in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 8. 2014. Mr. You will qualify for temporary relief programs that President Barack Obama newly announced in his recent execution action. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)
Jong-Min You, 34, an undocumented immigrant who has been in the U.S. for most of his life, inside his family owned convenience store in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 8. 2014. Mr. You will qualify for temporary relief programs that President Barack Obama newly announced in his recent execution action. Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times
Annie Wu
Annie Wu
Author
Annie Wu joined the full-time staff at the Epoch Times in July 2014. That year, she won a first-place award from the New York Press Association for best spot news coverage. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
twitter
Related Topics