Taiwanese American Tu Ho-Chou is among the record number of naturalized citizens eligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. elections. This comes in an election cycle where immigration and the right to citizenship have been particularly contentious issues.
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00:00After 20 years in the U.S., Taiwanese-American Du Hezhou is preparing to cast her first vote
00:07for the country's president.
00:09The molecular and cell biologist arrived on a student visa, and after years as a permanent
00:15resident with a green card, she only gained citizenship in 2021.
00:21Now the new mom is excited to take part in deciding the fate of the place her family
00:27calls home.
00:28It feels like, you know, it's good to learn and also it's an honor to be able to participate
00:34as well.
00:35You know, it's not a given, right?
00:37You can vote.
00:38And I think a lot of countries, and especially we know nowadays, maybe more and more, they
00:45don't have that kind of right.
00:48Du has always been fascinated by democracy.
00:52Born in Taiwan, where self-rule is hard-won against territorial claims by authoritarian
00:58China, Du says being in the U.S. is a chance to learn from the leader of the free world.
01:05The United States is home to a fifth of the world's international migrants, its melting
01:11pot identity tied to its diverse communities.
01:15Immigrants today account for over 14 percent of the country's population.
01:21Of the roughly 244 million eligible voters this year, one in 10 are naturalized citizens,
01:28meaning they were born outside the U.S.
01:31That's more immigrants than ever before participating in the democratic process here.
01:37And the fastest growing group among them are the Asian Americans.
01:41Despite the changing face of U.S. voters, immigration has been a fiercely debated issue
01:47in this election.
01:48Amid a surge of illegal crossings at the country's southern border with Mexico, both Democratic
01:54candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump have taken tough stands against
02:00illegal migrants, the former president going as far as to vow mass deportation.
02:07As Trump's camp ups anti-immigrant rhetoric, Harris, the daughter of immigrants herself,
02:12has reminded voters that part of the American spirit is the earned path to citizenship.
02:18We must acknowledge we are a nation of immigrants.
02:27For Taiwanese neuroscientist Anya Wang, coming to the U.S. from Taiwan three years ago was
02:33a chance to advance her career.
02:36Scientific field-wise, America is still one of the biggest ones, and a lot of companies
02:41are labs, while companies and the government is funding the labs.
02:46And so they just have more funding.
02:48Now married and thinking about where to raise her future children, Wang hopes to become
02:53a citizen and stay in the U.S., which may prove difficult should Trump regain the presidency
03:00and continue his previous policies seeking to limit the path to citizenship.
03:05But lawyers who help immigrants like Wang say confronting the flawed system is necessary
03:11for U.S. prosperity.
03:12A case that might have taken four or five hours before might take 15 hours now because
03:16you have to constantly go down every little rabbit hole they're going to go with you.
03:21We have gone through periods in our history where we've experienced a kind of social schizophrenia
03:27and tried to cut off the flow of the immigrants.
03:31But inevitably, the door is always open back up because we need those people to invigorate
03:37our economy.
03:41With Harris and Trump running one of the tightest races in history for the White House, Wang
03:46worries that anti-immigrant policies and sentiment may grow should Trump win.
03:52But those fears, she says, aren't enough to make her want to give up.
03:56I'm not just going to like, OK, things are bad, bye, I'm just going to leave.
04:00Like you should stay because you choose here and you were using a resource you were given
04:06here.
04:07For both Wang and Du, becoming American reflects their confidence in democracy, a system they
04:13believe is worth fighting for, knowing that the freedom to engage in public debate and
04:19cast ballots without fear are not rights to be taken for granted.
04:24Luffy Lee and Joyce Sun in Boston for Taiwan Plus.