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Emily Kessel
“I came over when I was four months old and I was naturalized pretty quickly after that by my adoptive parents. So I don’t remember anything about the process of coming over. And I was very fortunate to have my parents be very knowledgeable and have the resources to naturalize me.”
“I say in general a lot of the struggles is related to access to different resources like education. Financial aid and scholarships and what not are things that are not accessible in many states. There are a good more than dozen that have a law in place where access is more accessible but education is definitely an issue."
“I think, for the AAPI undocumented youth and community members in general, it’s more of a hush -hush thing to talk about legal status...but at the same time, with the Korean population, we did see such a large number apply for DACA. When they heard about this resource, when they had Korean centers that were giving information, they took the opportunity [to apply], so that goes against everyone being ashamed about their status.”
“I strongly believe it’s power in numbers too… DACA outreach right now and why people should apply even though DACA extension and DAPA are blocked. It’s because we really want to show that these programs are working, and they’re working because there’s a whole community to protect these applicants, to have a large number turn out and apply... it’s power in numbers.”
“That’s what I value about NAKASEC… the community drives what we’re working on, how we do it, we give advice and scope in DC, but the organizing and the way to keep things moving is from what the community wants.”
“The person really needs to feel that their story is not being used, but lifted up.”
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