Jansing and Co   |  January 29, 2013

Other minority groups over looked in undocumented immigrants debate

Most conversations on immigration reform center around Mexicans, which make up more than half of all illegal immigrants.  But MSNBC's Richard Lui reports on other ethnic groups often overlooked in the debate.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> in just a few hours, president obama will be in las vegas to push for immigration reform . watching closely will be the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the u.s. more than half came from mexico . the pew hispanic center says around 55 to 60% of all illegal immigrants are from mexico . but what about the rest? richard lui is here with a drilldown of the other ethnic groups . and often, people really don't even think about it.

>> right. the other half of illegal or unauthorized immigrants aren't from mexico . 4 million people are from other countries. mexico was number one, but followed by four other latin america countries. you have el valve dor, guatemala, honduras, and ecuador. then you have vietnam, korea, and china. that's why for americans, immigration reform resonates from them. of all unauthorized immigrants, up to 15% are from asian countries , says pew, where almost three times its population percentage. and when it comes to children who are brought here by their parents without authorization or dreamers, over 100,000 of them are from asian countries . now, immigration controversy is centuries long for this group. the japanese internment during world war ii seared the issue of what citizenship meant into generations of japanese americans . and the only law ever to ban a single country from immigration, the chinese exclusion act of 1882 did the very same. congress issued a formal apology just last year. the irish community knows well the fight for immigration reform too. in 2006 , they rallied to legalize up toll 50,000 unauthorized irish immigrants . the late ted kennedy even spoke to unauthorized irish groups and said this. "the way that immigration legislation was developed worked in a very dramatic and significant way against the irish." unauthorized irish, asians, and latinos have been coming to the u.s. to set up home for centuries. and today, over 60% of unauthorized adults have been here ten years or more. and chris, half are part of families. and so for this eclectic group, they hope 2013 is their year.

>> it does feel like change is coming. thank you so