Deport these guys. They cheated their way in.

It is interesting that the anti-immigration commenters make elementary errors in English usage, such as:
using its' as the possessive of it.
using immigrant's as the plural of immigrant.

It is these commenters (rather than the immigrants) who make me worry about the low quality of American education.

Being sent to South Korea is the worst thing in the world. Unless its Mexico

He is an activist who was invited to the White House? His beef? Breaking US law, and not wanting to do some paperwork.

He isn't "living in the shadows". How is it to the American public needs to be bullied by a small number of well-connected activist into not doing what EVERY NATION and EVERY REASONABLE SOCIETY does far more of - which is simply enforce its' most basic laws and its' borders.

Ju Hong was a staged heckler and was a former guest at the White house, the national review has a story about it up right now. Nothing with Obama is coincidence....you guys still buying that stuff?

Here's a bit from that article ....

Yesterday’s heckler at Obama’s pro-amnesty speech in San Francisco was Ju Hong, an approved guest of the White House and an illegal alien from South Korea who recently graduated from UC Berkeley. People who still say illegal aliens “live in the shadows” obviously don’t know this guy: He’s on Twitter and LinkedIn, was a member of student government, has lobbied for taxpayer subsidies for illegal-alien students, and has been the subject of so much fawning news coverage he has his own topic page at the Cal student paper.

So he was hardly some random heckler like the media would have you believe. This is what Hope and Change looks like.

The Obama administration has staged heckling events several times in recent years. They repeatedly allow Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin into events so that she can "heckle" the President in ways that allow him to pander to the hard-left base.

http://www.washingtonpost.c...

For those who don't believe that these events are setups, the only other option is that the secret service is so painfully incompetent that they don't bother to do background checks of the people who are standing feet away from the President and can't recognize the leaders of international protest organizations.

I think there is a conspiracy of people who spread conspiracy theories on the web.

If you look at those articles in the National Review and the Washington Post, you will see they don't say anything about staged hecklers. No normal publication would make that that sort of wild accusation - not even ideological publications like these two.

But the National Review and Washington Post do stage comments like these. They send people to search the web for related articles and to post comments with conspiracy theories and with links back to their articles or quotes from their articles.

Hong urges everyone to learn more about immigrants’ rights. “I respect whatever your stance may be, but be open,” he said. “Listen to our stories.”

Immigrant's don't have rights because they aren't citizens. There is a legal way to become a citizen, instead of breaking the law you could follow the process and do what every other immigrant does. Not everything is as easy as standing up and screaming at the top of your lungs during an Obama speech.

The title of this article for Ju Hong should read: Undocumented, unafraid, and more importantly MISINFORMED! See Politifcact: http://j.mp/Iranb2

After watching him disrespect president Obama speech, I feel ashamed for him, Is this a South Korean cultures? He makes all Korean looks bad, one advise to Ju Hong, You should go back to where you belong, because you are not even respect our president, the president who is fighting for the immigration reform and help you and allow your sister and your mom to stay here. You should go back to a totally Korean speaking and all Korean culture. In America, we have all different cultures, that's what make United States is such a great country, and currently we have a great president.
I have a Question to Ju Hong, Do Korea deport any illegal person entry and live in their country??
Go back to your Korea, you makes all Koreans ashamed.

They wouldn't. Korea is famously isolationist and xenophobic. They have a whole subset of their philosophy of "the inferiority of others" in the north.

http://www.slate.com/articl...

This article says that North Korea looks down on South Korea because the north is isolationist and focused on racial purity, while the south is not. It quotes a North Korean who says:

"The people of South Korea, he pointed out, were becoming mongrelized.
They wedded foreigners—even black American soldiers, or so he'd heard to
his evident disgust—and were losing their purity and distinction."

Ju Hong if from South Korea. If you want to apply this article to him, you should be saying that he is from the part of Korea that is NOT isolationist and xenophobic.

After watching him disrespect president Obama speech, I feel shame for him, Is this a South Korean cultures? one advise to Ju Hong, You should go back to where you belong, because you are not even respect our president, the president who is fighting for the immigration reform and help you and allow your sister and your mom to stay here. You should go back to a totally Korean speaking and all Korean culture. In America, we have all different cultures, that's what make United States is such a great country, and currently we have a great president

I am now living in Thailand where there is a strong anti-bias against illegal immigrants. There are millions of hill tribe children that are born in here and they are not allowed to attend school, receive any benefits, or travel freely in the country. Police check points manned throughout the country prevents many from leaving the village. Along the borders of Burma and Thailand there are hundreds of thousands of Karen refugees living in cramped housing and many have lived and died there. The camps have been there for over 60 years.

What I am concerned about is that so many of these refugees could be re-settled in the US. Most would love to return to Burma but cannot out of concern for their safety. 

I understand that racism is rearing its ugly head again in the US especially when the economy is in tatters. I have seen this so many times. Unfortunately, the US is not alone. It is happening across Europe and in Asia. Thailand has a labor shortage and there is so much exploitation against the Cambodian, Burmese, and Lao illegal immigrants. The ugly side that is happening all the the world and this includes the US is the human slavery. 

We need to balance the immigration problem free from politicians using the issue from political gain.

The ground zero is that his family broke the law. All this talk and complexities of the DREAM act can be solved by just looking at the root. People broke the US law. Shouldn't they pay a price for that? You can't break the law and demand the "right" for a same education as the one's that follow the rules. There are community colleges and much cheaper options for students like him. And yea, Berkeley degree holds much more weight then a community college's associates, but oh well, too bad. If you can't afford the $40 steak, go to mcdonalds.

This is yet another example of how America wastes the skills and talents of its young.  If we would teach and train our "undocumented" citizens instead, America would be a stronger and better place and we could hold our heads up in the world instead of just slowly sliding into becoming just one more mediocre country bound by prejudice and fear.

LOL. Jane, you realized Ju Hong is not American right. America can't waste "...the talent of its young." when the "young" isn't an American.

Pay attention to history. America was a much greater, more prosperous, and more powerful nation in the decades preceding the flood of illegal immigrants.

We've done fine with training and educating our legal citizens. We led the world for many years doing just that.

You haven't been reading all the newspaper articles saying that the United States is falling behind other developed countries in educational achievement - and that we are behind South Korea.

Educational achievement in the United States is slipping significantly behind compared to advances in other developed countries according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s“Education at a Glance 2013”, a compilation of 2011 education statistics for the world’s most developed countries. ... South Korea, Japan, Canada and the Russian Federation now outstrip the U.S. in the percentage of 25 to 34 year olds achieving tertiary, or advanced post-secondary, education.
http://www.hammillpost.com/...

The study, called the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), was conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. It covered the OECD's 34 mostly wealthy member nations (including the United States, most European countries and Japan) and 31 others. ... the best-performing students were in Shanghai, China, (one testing area that's not a country), with an average score of 556. South Korea (539) and Finland (536) were next. The United States ranked 17th (500),
http://www.washingtonpost.c...

I have never pursued formal graduate studies. Does 20 years of self-directed study since college make me an “undocumented” D.Phil. (Oxon.)?  I think not.

This an example of why it is difficult, for some countries, to get a tourist visa to visit the USA.  Many of the illegals are "over-stays" of tourist, student, biz visas.  

Thank you for carrying this story. As an adult trying to help young people and push for a Federal DREAM Act this gives me more energy. If Hong and his family can keep working then so can I.

Please fight for him, because his family can't.  Hopefully he has some good friends who have his back.  What is his status?  I believe it was Illinois who just passed the Dream Act?  We must push harder now, before he gets hurt!

Before he gets held accountable for his lawlessness, you mean.

His story is very sympathetic, and I wish him well. I hope he is not deported.

However, financial aid resources are strained and will only become more so. I don't see it as being "anti-immigrant" to be against the Dream Act. Rather, I see it as being pro (legal)-immigrant and pro native-born students.

After seeing him heckle the President, I kind of wish he was deported.

What, a foreigner who violates our laws, heckles our president, and demands special treatment isn't the type of person you want here? Yeah, me neither.

Considering how much he seems to hate America and our laws, why does he want to stay here so badly? This kid needs therapy, not a green card.

The divisiveness set in motion by the forces in power want us to be divisive.  Don't blame the immigrants for the powers that be who are bringing their beliefs down onto you.  Your instinct was correct the first time, it is about what is right and wrong.  Don't make it about money. 

How about if we just blame them for their lawlessness and refusal to abide by the terms of their visas that the American people so graciously bestowed upon them?

Good for him for having the courage to stand up for what is right. It's terrible that he could be ripped from a country he's grown up in and that has become his home, for lack of proper documentation. 

Unfortunately, the anti-immigrant tide is at its high-water mark - I'm not optimistic about the Dream Act or any other kind of immigration reform. Still, we have to keep pushing.

So if my parents break into your house while I'm still a kid, and we all continue to stay there long after I've grown up, eating your food, using your car, and demanding that you pay for our doctor visits, that's fine with you?

Furthermore, as a legal immigrant, I'd love to hear your explanation for why the likes of him deserve special/preferential treatment over scores of people standing in line waiting for the PRIVILEGE of becoming legal residents/citizens of this country.

I came here legally because I RESPECT laws and traditions of this country. His parents didn't, and he fell into their footsteps. No, I don't want this entitled disrespectful loudmouth and those like him here. It's a slap in the face to people like me.

No one thinks some person who is here without legal status should get preferential treatment - I believe in highly liberalized immigration laws. Anyone waiting in line gets in.

I'm pretty sure the reason you came here legally was because you had the ability to do so. Good for you. Not everyone has that privilege - it's not merely a matter of waiting in line, there are country, skill, and education-based quotas that shut out many worse-off immigrants.

If we abolish these limitations, everyone would be a legal immigrant. If you're feeling really vindictive, he can pay a fat fine for his illegal action.

It's that simple.

Yes, I was lucky, I won't deny it. I had a friend who helped me get a green card. That said, before that I had plenty of opportunities to come here on a student visa and just overstay. Many of my friends did that, but I didn't. I also waited for 8 years to bring my mother here, also legally, when I could've easily gotten her a visitor's visa and have her overstay. Why didn't I? Because I have something called a conscience and respect for this country. These people don't, and that's why they don't deserve to be here. It's that simple.

It's completely ridiculous your mother had to wait 8 years - our system shouldn't work that way.

I agree, the system can be made better. But it's no excuse to reward criminals.

It's completely ridiculous that you think America has unlimited resources. There are 20 million Americans out of work. College graduates can't find jobs. And your comments make me wonder how much education you have completed.

So your solution to the immigration "problem" of people like Ju Hong breaking the law and expecting to get special treatment for doing so is to completely open our borders?

All that would do is turn America into the kind of third world pit that these people are trying to escape from. America ALREADY has the most liberal immigration laws of any first-world nation.

I for one am sick and tired of NON-AMERICANS coming into our country and telling us what to do. If you don't like America, feel free to leave.

Yep, the solution to the "immigration problem" is to make our borders a lot more open. They don't have to be 100% open, we could still keep out known criminals or something, but basically if you are a normal person who is willing to come here and work hard, you should get in.

So a country that already has greater than 10% unemployment and massive and growing problems with homelessness and decaying wages should flood the market with an additional 1-2 billion people? All that would do is destroy our economy and turn America into the kind of country these people are fleeing from.

That would bring about 2 billion people to the U.S. border. We can't accommodate that many.

Nah, it'd be far less than that - maybe 150 million total: http://www.gallup.com/poll/...

"Good for him for having the courage to stand up for what is right. It's
terrible that he could be ripped from a country he's grown up in and
that has become his home, because his parents brought him here illegally, and he continued to live in the country illegally long after he learned what his true immigration status was."
**********

Edited for accuracy.
He wouldn't be deported for not having the correct documentation.
He would be deported for coming to the country under false pretenses, violating the terms of his guest visa, and violating American Immigration & Customs laws.

I would like to point out that being against illegal immigration is not the same thing as being against all immigration. Many of the people I know who hold the harshest views about what should be done with illegal immigrants believe that the legal immigration process should be made much easier.

Part of the reason that anti-immigration sentiment in America is so strong right now is that our economy is still in the toilet. Job creation is lagging behind the population growth of legal American residents. It's hard to convince folks that we need to be letting more immigrants into the country when 10% of the people who are already here can't find jobs.

The Sharkey, it has never been my experience that people who are the most strongly against illegal immigration are also most in favor of making legal immigration easier, but I haven't met every American ever, so it's entirely possible that these people exist. That's good news!

Would these people support Comprehensive Immigration Reform that includes a large and easy to use guest worker program that doesn't exploit its clients, and a system for admission that allows anyone of sound mind and body, who can demonstrate they will become self-sufficient, into the country after a relatively short waiting period (say, maximum five years)? Maybe this system could also include a long-term path to citizenship for those who are interested, after they jump a few hurdles (civics classes, etc.) and pay some fees. That would be a pretty ok system! Instead, we have "wait lines" as long as a human lifespan. I personally can't fault someone who lives in an awful situation from taking her fate and those of her children into her own hands to make their lives better when the legal channels are de facto closed to her, but your mileage may vary.

It is absolutely correct that anti-immigration sentiment is higher when the economy is bad! I think this is one part emotional (looking for a scapegoat), one part fear of people sucking up taxes, and one part fear of the lump of labor fallacy. Luckily, the facts are that most immigrants (even a lot of legal ones) can't access public services, and ultimately pay more in taxes through sales tax than they receive in public goods. Similarly, immigrants raise or do not effect the wages of all Americans except...other low-skill immigrants. Which sucks for those low-skill immigrants, but I usually hear anti-immigrant sentiment from white Americans so there's some kind of mental disconnect going on.

The fact is, the American people welcomed in this family for a short period of time with a tourist visa -- and this family took advantage of our generosity. This is a family of fraudsters and liars and their act of lying to us makes me not want to have them in my country any more. They CERTAINLY don't deserve any special treatment.

Think about it: This family lies to the American people, pretends to be tourists, violates our laws, and then heckles our president, demanding they get away with their lawlessness. What horrible people.