Jung Bin Cho has always dreamed of going to Virginia Tech (photo by Pam Huie).
But his family was too poor to send him and he was not eligible for in-state tuition assistance.
He recently told his story to the Washington Post.
“My dream was to go to Virginia Tech, but I had to turn them down. It was sad,” he said.
The 19-year old undocumented immigrant came to the United States 13 years ago on visas from Seoul that were invalid. He won temporary legal status along with 8,100 young undocumented immigrants in Virginia as a dreamer.
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Now thanks to lobbying by him and others, this past week, the Virginia State Attorney General announced that dreamers like Cho will be eligible for in-state tuition.
While lobbying for the change, he worked with many Latino students and learned they had much in common.
“The face of immigration reform has been mostly Hispanic,” Cho said. “If I can add another face and a sense of diversity to the issue, it may help people think differently about ‘dreamers’ from an economic perspective, and even a moral one.”
You can read more about Asian American dreamers in the Washington Post.