Immigration a Family Affair for Many Asians

Harish Dhruv did it legally.

A native of India, Dhruv came to the United States on a student visa in 1970, earned an undergraduate degree in textile chemicals, found an employer willing to sponsor him for a green card and obtained citizenship in 1977. Then he petitioned to bring his younger sister here, finally winning approval in 2001 -- after 17 long years.

So ask Dhruv about the immigration debate raging across the nation, and he will tell you his top priority is not legalizing undocumented migrants, nor is it expanding a guest worker program. It is reducing the long wait for visas for family members.

"It's too long," said Dhruv, 60, a South Pasadena financial planner. "I feel it's very unfair to the people who are waiting and to those who want to bring their families together. I want Congress to stop playing politics and resolve this issue in the best interests of legal American citizens, rather than concentrating on the illegals."

Much of the attention so far has been focused on Latinos. But the nation's roughly 10 million Asian immigrants also have an enormous stake in the debate, which will resume as Congress returns from recess this week.

Their priorities, however, are often different from Latinos'.

Statistics help explain why: Only about 8% to 10% of the Asian population is here illegally, compared with more than 20% of Latinos.

Latinos accounted for 78% of the nation's 11 million illegal migrants in 2005, compared with 13% from Asia, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

As a result, Asian activists say, their communities are most concerned about reducing family visa backlogs -- a goal opposed by some immigration-control groups. Asians also oppose other proposed measures that they say would harshly curtail the civil rights of legal immigrants.

Because their homelands are an ocean away, they are not as concerned with a proposed guest worker program or with enhanced border enforcement.

In addition, more Asians than Latinos are naturalized U.S. citizens, college-educated and professionally employed -- attributes that may make some feel less connected to the struggles of predominantly low-skilled illegal immigrants.

Relatively few Asian immigrants have joined the marches, rallies and other pro-immigrant events that have taken place in cities nationwide, perhaps viewing the movement as a Latino cause.