Former illegal immigrant Tom Wong now helping pave way for outsiders

The son of Hong Kong parents who lived in the United States illegally for years without him knowing it is now trying to help improve immigration legislation there.

While Tom Wong, 31, had no legal status while growing up, it did not stop him from becoming a professor at the University of California, San Diego.

His parents went to California on tourist visas in 1984 from Hong Kong. They could not speak English and worked at a Chinese restaurant, hoping their employer would sponsor them. But the restaurant closed.

Over the years, they did a variety of jobs but it was only when Wong was in his teens and asked to go to a basketball tournament in Canada that he learned the truth - he was not an American citizen or even a legal resident.

He was a toddler when he left Hong Kong and had never given a thought to his status until then.

He went on to marry his American girlfriend and became a citizen. It took almost two decades more for his parents to be granted citizenship.