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| "I'm reminded daily that I don't belong here," Jin Park writes. AP |
By Jung Min-ho
A Korean "Dreamer," who won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship, fears he will not be allowed back into the United States ― a country he calls "home" ― after completing the program.
Jin Park, 22, is a recent Harvard University graduate who came to the United States illegally as a seven-year-old child with his parents, after the Asian financial crisis hit Korea in 1997.
The scholarship allows him to study at the University of Oxford in England, but he worries that he will not be able to return to the U.S. following the Donald Trump administration's decision to rescind the option for overseas travel for those with DACA status.
In a column in the New York Times on Jan. 11, Park talked about his fears and what the U.S. meant to him.
"This is a perpetual reality of being undocumented: I never know if I have a place in America ― my home ― even after receiving one of the most esteemed scholarships in the world," Park wrote.
"I plan to use my time at Oxford to think about how undocumented immigrants can urge this country to recognize that we are American ― we stand among you and we are embedded in this country, its practices and its institutions. I hope to start a dialogue about how we as Americans can collectively forge a common identity that respects human rights."
Under the previous Barack Obama administration, which created DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, were allowed to travel overseas under limited circumstances.
But the Trump administration ordered an end to the DACA protections. However, federal courts in New York, California and Washington, D.C., have ruled against the order, so the program is still in place for now. The administration is seeking a Supreme Court review.
"When I step on that plane in October and leave the United States for the first time since I arrived 16 years ago, I will think of the bustling flea market on 41st Street and Union Avenue in Flushing, and of the smell of freshly made spicy tteokbokki rice cakes in Korean eateries along Northern Boulevard that I pass on my way to the 7 train," Park wrote. "These are my roots. These are the sights and sounds that nurtured me as I became the person I am today."
