Actor Bambadjan Bamba, best known for his role in NBC’s “The Good Place,” publicly revealed that he's been living in the United States illegally, protected only by former President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.
“Immigrants are not criminals,” Bamba told the LA Times.
At the age of 10, Bamba and his family reportedly left their home in the Ivory Coast and made their way to America, where he has lived for nearly 25 years and now works in Hollywood.
He told the LA Times that he found out that he was an illegal resident when he started applying for financial aid for college. That’s when his parents broke the news to him.
“Oh yeah…The asylum case didn't work out, but whatever you want to do, we will support,” he said they told him.
The American Immigration Council spectulated that Bamba and his family were turned down for asylum status due to numerical limits Congress sets on how many asylees can be permitted each year, explaining:
Each year the United States sets a numerical limit on how many refugees will be admitted for humanitarian reasons. To be admitted as refugees, individuals must be screened by multiple international and U.S. agencies and prove that they have a ‘well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, or national origin.’ Asylum seekers are individuals already in the United States who fear returning to their home countries, and they must prove they meet the definition of a refugee. An immigrant does not qualify as a refugee or an asylee because of poverty or difficult economic conditions in their home country. There are limited forms of temporary humanitarian protection available, but these are rare.
Bamba and his family fled the Ivory Coast in 1993 due to political instability. But rather than return home after being denied legal status in the United States, Bamba's family simply overstayed their visas.
Despite having lived in the U.S. illegally for years, the actor told the LA Times that he believes that he is still an American.
"The only difference is [that you have] a certain piece of paper that's supposed to allow you to navigate freely in the country,” he said.