Undocumented College Students - the “Invisibles”
I’ve been meaning to post this link for a couple weeks. The LA Times had an article in their Sunday magazine (link is to the author’s site) in April on a club at UCLA for undocumented immigrant students. It’s important to put a human face on the immigration debate. Here’s an excerpt:
If archers and anime fans could have student clubs at UCLA, why not undocumented immigrants? They called themselves IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success) and gathered weekly, talking about all manner of frustrations: how mortifying it is to get carded at an 18-and-older show and have no ID . . . How frustrating it is when people make fun of you because you can’t drive, when you can’t get a license in California. How you hate lying about stupid things. How sometimes, even though you would never tell them, you blame your parents for coming here the way they did and making your life so difficult.
But the conversations usually turned pragmatic. Some administrative staff in the finance and registration offices were unaware of AB 540 and openly hostile to students whose files lacked a Social Security number, telling them that their admission must have been a mistake or that they didn’t belong in college.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
I read that article, and I thought it was excellent. It puts everything in perspective, and my college years–not easy by any stretch–suddenly took on the appearance of a cakewalk.
I agree–it is important for us to remember the people, and not just the issue.