In a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, an undocumented bartender wonders when he will see his family again. He has made a few visits home in the seven years he's lived here illegally, always managing to sneak back into the country. But security has grown tighter. If there is a family emergency and he has to go home, he's not sure he can return.

Home isn't Mexico, though. The bartender is Irish.

So is the nanny.

They are among the estimated 2.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States who are not from Latin America but from Asia, Europe, Canada, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. They make up nearly a quarter of the nation's undocumented population, yet in the current immigration debate, they have been all but invisible.

In Congress, the focus has been on stopping illegal immigration at the southern border, where most illegal entrants are from Latin America. In the anti-illegal immigration lobby, most of the ire has been directed at Latinos, primarily Mexicans, with activist groups scouting the Mexican border and some recently picketing the local Mexican consulate.