I came across a story about a woman by the name of Kyeong Sook Hwang two months back, who today still remains helplessly in jail. Looking at her situation as a human being, I could not help but to empathize with her. She was an undocumented immigrant living in New Jersey with her husband and two American-born children. She came to the U.S. in 1996 and built a life here. But while trying to renew her driver’s license last November, she was unexpectedly arrested because of her undocumented status. The case could have been processed as an immigration case, but instead was filed as a criminal case. While trying to pursue Ms. Hwang’s story and bring light to the injustice, I felt the strong fear of exposure that her family expressed through the interviews. So much so, that it caused me to stop writing their story.

Then I began to wonder —why should they have to live in that fear? Their actions were wrong as defined by the law, but to penalize them for working hard as law-abiding people who just want a better life, also seems wrong and irrational.

The 2010 Census estimates that there are 230,000 Korean Americans living in the U.S. as unauthorized residents.