Born in Macau, Ivy Teng Lei moved to the United States at the age of seven. She was the only member of her family who was undocumented when she entered, and was one of the beneficiaries of the temporary DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) protective measure instituted by the Obama Administration – a program that Donald Trump wanted to repeal, resulting in aggressive protests around the country.
The specific law that was supposed to have allowed her to formalise her immigration status was called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act or “DREAM”. However the Act never passed, leaving Ivy, along with around 12 million other DREAMERs in a precarious situation.
Ivy now works in a technology company in Silicon Valley, San Francisco. She has never returned to Macau, but two years ago, after finally receiving her green card through marriage, she planned to visit her hometown and even bought flight tickets to return. Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic forced her to cancel the trip.
“In fact, I missed out on seeing my last surviving grandparent before she died of cancer in October 2020, the day of my 30th birthday. It is a story many undocumented immigrants endure – not being able to travel and see a loved one before they die – and I’ll always carry this regret with me along my undocumented journey in America.”
As a DREAMer, Ivy Teng Lei was able to bring her situation to the attention of the media. In 2013, the Macau native started by sharing her story in interviews anonymously, later revealing her identity publicly. The story even caught the attention of the international press, and soon she would be writing a column for the British newspaper The Guardian.
“My fight has been about using my privilege and power to tell the story many folks are unable to tell due to their lack of a platform or access to media outlets. No matter how little of the larger part of the immigration history of the United States I experienced, I believe we can all individually affect change, even if it doesn’t feel that way sometimes,” she says.
In recent years, due to her persistence, Ivy has even been regularly welcomed by Democratic Party leaders on Capitol Hill to discuss immigration-related policies.
“Being undocumented and seeing headlines day after day threatening my ability to stay in this country, a place I’ve called home for as long as I can remember, I told myself that if I were to be deported, I might as well go out kicking and screaming.
“For friends who don’t think Trump was targeting ‘people like me’, he was. For the by-passers who think this is just about the border, drugs, or criminals, it’s not – it’s about white supremacy, xenophobia, and systemic racism.”
As a formerly undocumented immigrant, Ivy believes the next four years look more promising than the last four. But she adds a caveat with a warning: “With the Biden administration, we’re seeing signs of undoing the previous office’s harmful tactics since day one, but we know all too well that we must continue to hold the administration accountable for upholding the promises made on the campaign trail, and to introduce, pass, and enact comprehensive immigration legislation reform that centers on justice for immigrants regardless of their immigration status”.
In her opinion, Trump’s threat regarding the repeal of the DACA program was “extremely real and taunting”.
“Many of us lived our lives in limbo without a clear understanding of when the target on our back would manifest into deportation and endanger our families’ lives as well,” she indicates.
Ivy Teng Lei got her green card in 2019. However, she was unable to vote in the US Presidential election that saw Joe Biden elected.
“It felt extremely traumatizing knowing our future would be determined about us, but without us,” she recalls.
Ivy blames Trump for inciting discrimination during the past four years in “every corner of this country, every class, every religion, and every race.”
“The work of uniting together and fighting white supremacy, does not end with this election or the next; it is work we must do every day at work, at dinner, in classrooms, and beyond,” she suggests.
In February of last year, while Donald Trump was insistently calling the new coronavirus the “Chinese virus,” Ivy Teng Lei was the victim of a “hate crime.” She recounts that while walking down the street in a residential area, a man walked past her and spat at her.
“I was in shock,” she says, adding that ever since then, she leaves her home armed with pepper spray and tries to stay away from everyone she comes across on the street.
“Unity is absolutely crucial to help us recover from the last four years,” she says.
However, given the recent attacks against the Capitol, “It is not enough to have a unified front against racism, sexism, agism, ablism, xenophobia, and bigotry; we must put words into action and pass legislation that actively combats these domestic terrorists, while investing heavily in marginalized communities who have, for too long, been neglected and suffered as a result,” she adds.
Not least because, in Ivy Teng Lei’s opinion, “racism is deeply entrenched in our education, financial, health, housing, and every system that governs our country.”
“It is time we focus on equity, in addition to diversity and inclusion, so that our children can all have a fair and equal shot at the American dream.”
+
A Balancing Act
Leading the Way
