Undocumented Life Is a Hurdle as Immigrants Seek a Reprieve

Proving that they have been in this country for many years is hard for some immigrants, especially if employers won't admit they employed them illegally.    - - Donna Poisl

By KIRK SEMPLE

Chul Soo, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from South Korea, has lived on the fringes of society in recent years, working off the books at a video game store and a beauty supplies wholesaler in New York City, carrying neither a driver’s license nor credit cards, and having little contact with the government.

Now he is applying for a new program that offers illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children a reprieve from deportation if they can demonstrate that they have been in the country since 2007, among other requirements. Yet Chul Soo, who said he arrived in 1995, is finding that he has little in the way of proof of his whereabouts for the last five years.

“It’s frustrating,” he said, referring to his effort to piece together a mosaic of records. “I really need this right now.”
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