This paper reviews the relationship between border control and racial discourse, focusing on the life of Park Yong Hak, an Asian immigrant in the United States in the early twentieth century. Previous studies have found how American society tried to establish the racial value of white people by othering Asians and how Asian immigrants dealt with racism. In continuing this line of search, the paper uses as an analytical framework the theory of Etienne Balibar, which criticizes that modern borders have justified discrimination against ‘foreigners’ under the pretext of protecting the rights of ‘people’ by separating the inside and outside of the boundary exclusively on the premise of birth, nationality, ethnicity, and racial homogeneity. To this study, the life of Park Yong-Hak is particularly relevant, as he had a hybrid identity from his repeated migrations between China and Korea and Korea and America and showed cracks in the American racial discourse in the US immigration court. The paper pays close attention to the three aspects of Park’s life. First, Park Yong-Hak, born in China to Chinese parents, served as a soldier of the Korean Empire and was issued a Korean Empire passport. Second, after emigrating to the United States, he learned English at school, settled in American society, and found a job, without being part of the immigrants’ community. Finally, Park Yong Hak demonstrated his foreign language skills and made an honest statement in the US immigration court, contrary to the image of cunning and ignorant Asians prevalent in American society at the time.