8 | Ivy Teng Lei, DACA Recipient & Advocate | Chasing a DREAM

This week’s episode shines light on an uncomfortable but important topic in our country: the U.S. immigration system. Lynne speaks with Ivy Teng Lei, an undocumented immigrant and DREAMer. Ivy speaks openly about her struggle with living under the constant fear of deportation, even under the current (tenuous) protection of DACA. 

In recent years, Ivy has become a voice for the Asian American undocumented community. She shares her story and explains why the needs of undocumented Asian Americans are often overlooked in the context of a broader immigration conversation. 

Ivy and Lynne discuss:

What growing up in the US as an undocumented immigrant has been like, 

How it’s affected Ivy’s path and psyche,

What the future may hold for DACA recipients & DREAMers, and 

What Asian Americans can do to help 


Word of warning: this episode does get political.

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Relevant Immigration Resources Mentioned in the Show and Recommended by Ivy:

Ivy participated in the New York Immigration Coalition DREAMer fellowship: http://thenyic.org

FAQ on how to apply/renew for DACA (via National Immigration Law Center) https://www.nilc.org/issues/daca/faqdeferredactionyouth/

United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led community in the country: https://unitedwedream.org

New York State Youth Leadership Council, the first undocumented youth led organization in New York: https://www.nysylc.org/

For more stories on undocumented immigrants,  visit The Marshall Project: https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/427-immigration-and-customs-enforcement

Find your local elected official: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/


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Ivy’s bio: Ivy Teng Lei is a native New Yorker from Chinatown, Manhattan and is a proud product of the NYC public school system, a DREAMer, and an immigrant and education advocate. She is a regular op-ed contributor in The Guardian and her advocacy has been covered by NBC, Fox, ABC, NY Times and interviewed by other major news platforms.

She led the effort to create New York’s Asian American / Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship and was elected as the Chair of Asian American Federation Professional Leadership Council, and most recently chaired a statewide campaign on college affordability. In 2016, Ivy founded a company dedicated to bridging the gap between multicultural and mainstream marketing strategies for public and private sectors and non-for-profits and is currently working to formalize a non-for-profit that provides scholarship opportunities for students in need regardless of immigration status.

Ivy's career started at Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), where she worked with Fortune 500 companies on marketing strategy. After IPG, she worked at The Gap in Global Marketing where she oversaw global on-product marketing from conception to execution. Ivy was most recently the Account Strategy Director at Ladder.io, a tech marketing startup while serving as an Independent Board of Directors at the Baruch College Association. She was a 2013 DREAM Fellow at the New York Immigration Coalition and an alumna of the CORO Leadership New York network. She currently works as a Director of Client Strategy at Thesis.

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Thanks to Jeff Luong, who helped edit this episode, and Molly Schulson, for music and final mixing. Check out Molly’s personalized audio story collection at tellmystoryaudio.com. 

Please subscribe and share this episode with anyone who you think could benefit from it. If you have suggestions for topics about the Asian American community, or a personal story that you’d like to share, email [email protected]. 

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