Some have asserted that this was the first time that the legal term “Yellow” came up to distinguish “White rights” from those of people from Chinese descent.  In the general media of the time, however, the term, “Yellow Peril”, had already been commonly used to inflame the general public’s paraonia about Chinese laborers taking over jobs at lower pay.

The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco along with some Chinese business groups filed a writ habeas corpus on Ark’s behalf in federal court and gained his release.  The government appealed to the US Supreme Court and the case hinged on the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which states “… all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”  In a 6-2 decision, the court ruled that a child born of two Chinese Nationals legally present on American soil was an American citizen and thus entitled to all the rights and privileges.

The case allowed three of his four sons to be recognized as US citizens as well and were allowed to come to America.  The fourth, the eldest, was denied on US officials claim that there were discrepancies in the testimony of his hearing, and insignificant proof that he was actually Ark’s son.  

Wong Kim Ark’s case has been since referred to in various immigration cases.  Even today, this landmark case causes debate within the context of the modern immigration debate.  

I learned about this case at the Korean American Bar Association (KABA) dinner in Seattle, where the organization gave away scholarships to deserving Korean-American law students.  The growth of the Asian American attorney community ensures better representation across the American courts.  Hopefully, we will take our growing representation to ensure the same opportunity for new immigrants regardless of race.

To me, Wong Kim Ark is an American hero, and an important piece of the history that has shaped today’s America.  And all of us Asian-Americans cannot forget his story.

A recent study, “American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness”, found the following:

• Immigrants have started 1 in 4 (25 percent) U.S. public companies that were venture-backed in the past 15 years, representing a market capitalization of more than $500 billion. You may have heard of some of them: Intel, Google, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and eBay.

 

• Moreover, a survey of today’s private, venture-backed start-up companies in the U.S. estimated that 47 percent have immigrant founders.

 

• Of the more than 400,000 worldwide jobs created by immigrant-founded ventured-backed public companies, 70 percent are in the high-tech manufacturing sector.

Pretty amazing. Given the disproportionally high involvement in high-tech sector, the “immigrant impact” is likely to grow even more in coming years. What a great country!

Now, the scary part. The report revealed an increasing concern that current US immigration policy is jeopardizing our ability to attract and retain critical talent from across the globe. More than two-thirds of immigrant entrepreneurs agreed that U.S. immigration policy has made it more difficult than in the past to start a company in America. Two-thirds of the private companies surveyed who use H-1B visas (temporary visa to hire skilled foreign nationals) say that current immigration laws harm U.S. competitiveness. Forty percent stated that current immigration policies have negatively impacted their companies when competing against other firms globally. One-third of the private companies said that the lack of visas had influenced their company’s decision to place more personnel in facilities abroad.

So, why do those who yell the loudest about being “patriotic” support such un-American immigration policies? Why is the Patriot Act, passed to supposedly to protect our nation, putting it in such harm’s way?

On this Independence Day weekend, I wanted to do something for my country and encourage everyone to remember that the mystic of the American Dream is one of the greatest assets of this country. This powerful pull attracts the brightest and most ambitious from around the world to drive our businesses to greater innovations. Don’t let this 300-year-old American tradition be jeopardized by the simple polarizing slogans and dangerous short-sightedness.