Wisdom in Education

Volume 9 Issue 1 Article 4

11-1-2018

Experiences of undocumented students in schools and at university

Gloria Cortez State University San Bernardino, 006126571@.csusb.edu

John M. Winslade California State University - San Bernardino, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Cortez, Gloria and Winslade, John M. (2018) "Experiences of undocumented students in schools and at university," Wisdom in Education: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/wie/vol9/iss1/4

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wisdom in Education by an authorized editor of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Experiences of undocumented students in schools and at university

Abstract The aim of this article is to document the experiences of undocumented students. Regardless of where a person stands on the issue, he or she still needs to listen to these voices in order to treat people with the dignity they deserve as human beings. This article was inspired by two things. One was a speech given by a former undocumented student at a social justice summit. The other was a literature review by the first author in a paper for her Masters degree in counseling. This literature review formed much of the basis for this article. It captured many of the experiences of undocumented students and these are important for school counselors to learn about.

Keywords undocumented students, school experience, university experience

Author Statement Gloria Cortez is a student in the Masters program in Guidance and Counseling at CSUSB. Dr John Winslade is an emeritus professor in this program.

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This article is available in Wisdom in Education: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/wie/vol9/iss1/4 Cortez and Winslade: Undocumented students

Experiences of undocumented students in schools and at university

The purpose of this article is to document acronym for the Development, Relief, and some of the experiences of undocumented Education for Alien Minors Act. This is a students at in schools and at university. It was piece of congressional legislation that has inspired by a speech given by Estefania taken various forms but has never been Esparza Loera, a former undocumented passed into federal law by Congress. student, at the Social Justice Summit at According to the Pew Center, there are California State University San Bernardino on estimated to be 11.5 million undocumented February 17, 2018. It was stimulated further immigrants in the United States (Jimenez- by comments from a literature review Arista & Koro-Ljungberg, 2017), 40% more completed by a trainee school counselor, than at the millennium, although numbers Gloria Cortez, whose interest lay in how, as have declined since 2007. There are an educational professional, she could be of estimated to be 65,000 immigrant children in use to undocumented students. Her hope was the U.S. each year who graduate from U.S. to understand undocumented Latino students’ high schools and would be DREAM-eligible unique challenges and their coping strategies (Morales, Herrera & Murry, 2011; Jimenez- in order to create awareness and advocacy for Arista & Koro-Ljungberg, 2017). However, this group of students. Gonzalez (2011) Jimenez-Arista & Koro-Ljungberg estimate points out that educators play a critical role in that only 5% to 10% of these students shaping the lives of these individuals and in “matriculate into college” (p. 2) and fewer still helping them to understand their worth as actually graduate. As a result, “25 percent of citizens in society. In the face of adversity undocumented immigrants between the ages these students deserve to be acknowledged of 25 and 64 have either attended college or for persevering and continuing to pursue their received a postsecondary education degree, educational goals. As Gloria Cortez, the compared to 53 percent of documented trainee school counselor, says, immigrants and 62 percent of individuals born “Undocumented students matter and their in the United States” (Nienhusser, Vega, & contributions to our society are many.” For Carquin, 2015, p. 31). such reasons, addressing this topic is essential, The scenario varies in different states of because some undocumented students do not the U.S., however. In California, Governor talk about their experience, nor do they know signed into law in 2011 two how to cope with their unique struggles. Her pieces of legislation that together are known hope is to build a trusting relationship with as the California Dream Act. This legislation undocumented students so that she can better provides for the payment of state-funded aid serve them. Although it is a mistake to and scholarships at state universities for assume that experiences of all undocumented undocumented students. This provision students are uniform, it is our hope that added to his earlier signing into law a similar understanding some persistent themes in provision for private scholarships. Some these students’ lives helps build compassion other states have pursued a similar pathway to for their situation. But first, it is necessary to California. According to an article in put Gloria Cortez’s literature review in Education Week, “The law requires that context. undocumented students meet the same requirements as other students applying for Legislative context financial aid at state universities but specifies One piece of this context it is necessary to that they only qualify for financial aid after all understand is the so-called “Dream Act”, an other legal residents have applied” (Education

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Week, 2011, p. 4). Thangasamy and Horan length with her family before she decides to (2016) list eighteen US states that have go ahead. For another student this fear of allowed undocumented students to pay trusting others with his undocumented status university tuition at the same rate as instate leads him to be cautious because, “the other students instead of requiring them to pay out person now will have incredible power over of state tuition rates. him and possibly his family” (p. 77). The In addition to the Dream Act, there is the same student survived financially by tutoring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals other students but the fear of being arrested (DACA) initiative, an action established in and having his car impounded is present in August 2012 by presidential decree rather the back of his mind each time he drives than an Act of Congress (Homeland Security, anywhere. Another student cited by 2015). DACA did not offer legal immigration Hernandez et al. also mentions her status, but it did offer temporary work guardedness. She allows other students to permits and relief from the threat of think that she is an international student and deportation. As a result, students who qualify carefully avoids romantic relationships. are sometimes referred to as DACAmented Gonzales and Chavez (2012) also indicate (Nienhusser, Vega, & Carquin, 2015). As that undocumented students’ status of being Jimenez-Arista & Koro-Ljungberg (2017) “illegal” creates internalized fears, note, undocumented students face a series of hopelessness, and immobilization. They obstacles throughout their education but collected survey data from 805 youth Latinos especially after they complete high school. and 396 non-Latino Whites living in Orange They list these obstacles as “difficulties in County. Additionally, they conducted driving, getting forms of identification, interviews with undocumented youth from opening bank accounts, applying for jobs, and the so-called 1.5-generation (referring to interacting with the police” (p. 2). individuals who immigrated to the United Research by Nienhusser, Vega, and States at an early age and therefore most of Carquin (2015) also illustrates the difficulty their schooling, cultural, and social undocumented students face even getting into development occurred in this country). The college. They showed how students received researchers’ in-depth interviews indicated that variable help from school and college adolescence for undocumented students is a counselors. Some were encouraging, period of great stress and anxiety. knowledgeable and helpful, while others were Abrego (2006) conducted an ethnographic actively discouraging, not very knowledgeable study in which he explored the experiences of and unhelpful. 24 documented and undocumented Latino students in . Participants ranged Discursive themes from 15 to 22 years old and were currently Research into the discourse of DREAM- attending or had attended high school. eligible students has shown several consistent Abrego (2006) explains that both documented themes. One understandable common theme and undocumented Latino students are is that of caution and fear. Hernandez, exposed to similar environments during high Hernandez, Gadson, Huftalin, Ortiz, White, school. For instance, both groups and Yocum-Gaffney (2010) refer to the strain experienced lack of academic resources and of ongoing fear. The authors show an their parents’ inability to provide them with undocumented student “feeling fearful about academic support. However, these students’ being deported on simple trips to the store” situation changed upon high school (p. 70). For another student the fear is graduation. Abrego says, “Undocumented associated with “sharing her secret” (p. 74) youth must face the most difficult challenge with a student officer. She discusses this at associated with their status upon high school

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graduation when educational expenses make certain areas, such as checkpoints and areas college inaccessible” (p. 220). His findings with high levels of police activity. Many suggest that undocumented students, at an drove in fear of being stopped by the police early age, are forced to become aware of their and asked for their driver’s license and/or economic limitations, the rules they live by, immigration documents. “Many experienced and the potential consequences of their legal a sense of hopelessness as they looked ahead status. For instance, undocumented students to an uncertain future” (Gonzalez et al., 2012, are not eligible for most scholarships, loans, p. 263). In other words, some undocumented and federal financial aid and, therefore, few students lose hope and stop pursuing their can even attend community college. Abrego academic goals. Undocumented youth also states, “They are unable to apply for jobs or fear deportation and worry about being internships, they do not qualify for social unable to sustain their family due to their services, and if they choose to leave the inability to work legally in this country. Many country, they risk not being able to re-enter” other undocumented students also experience (p. 224). Undocumented students struggle issues with their identity. Gonzalez et al., financially to afford community college and to (2012) said, “The condition of illegality not obtain a menial job. Without college financial only constrains daily life but also can leave an aid, their parents cannot help them to afford indelible imprint on identity” (p. 266). For an education. instance, they identified themselves as Another student cited by Hernandez et al. Americans and many of them did not know (2010) mentions feeling ashamed about being much about their birth culture. However, undocumented and working so hard to get to they also felt unwelcomed by this country and college and then running into obstacles such confused about their identity. as transport (because she could not get a In terms of social and emotional driver’s license, she did not drive). As her development, Perez, Cortes, Ramos, and undocumented status began stopping her Coronado (2010) found that undocumented from getting employed and earning wages students experienced a sense of shame and befitting her education, she recalled, “I had a discrimination. They described a participant really hard time accepting reality, and it kind as feeling ashamed for being undocumented of got me depressed” (p. 73). In the and also alienated, because he was not like Gonzalez et al. study one participant recalled everyone else, despite being inculcated with that he was excited to attend college and, like the values and practice that form the cultural many of his friends, was making plans for expectations of this country. Perez et al. college. However, because he was not a U.S. (2010) said, “Jacinto, who has no legal status citizen he could not receive any federal in the United States, proudly conveys his financial aid to pay for his education. He pride at being raised under the American flag. became frustrated and experienced Nevertheless, he expresses a sense of depression. Gonzalez et al. (2012) humiliation and helplessness” (p.39). commented, “He could not understand how Undocumented students also undergo the value of hard work and his discrimination. Perez et al. (2010) explained accomplishments could suddenly be so that undocumented students are meaningless” (p. 262). misrepresented in the media as, “immoral Undocumented students experienced criminals” and “social threats”, rather than as issues with their identity, placed their lives on contributing members of society. Others hold, and felt hopeless. Gonzalez et al., perceived them as inferior and they dealt with (2012) explained that these individuals micro-aggressive behaviors and stereotypes in sometimes learned to live as an “illegal”. For their everyday life. If they did not experience instance, in terms of driving, they avoided exclusion from academic institutions, they

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might face discrimination from the faculty. such as guidance and empathy during stressful Some educators did not hold back their situations also helped them to persevere. ignorance but expressed their biases and Perez et al. explained that resilient discrimination toward these students (Perez et undocumented students underwent higher al., 2010). Some counselors and teachers told levels of hardship, but also, “On the whole, these students explicitly or implicitly that they the resilient group seemed to adapt well under would not make it to higher education and adversity as indicated by the high academic that there was no hope for them. achievement levels” (p. 26). Moreover, undocumented students Undocumented Latino students also struggled with lack of information on how to connect well with other successful students move forward and how to seek financial and seek guidance, social, and emotional support to attend a higher education support from them. Moreover, they formed (Gonzales, 2011). One of Gonzales’ trusting relationships with teachers and participants said, “I didn’t know anything personnel that were more likely to support about AB540. Maybe if I knew that them with present or future challenges. information I could have gotten a scholarship Gonzales’ (2010) life history in-depth or something. I don’t know if my counselor interviews in Los Angeles revealed that some knew, but they never told me anything” (p. students formed positive relationships with 611). Many faculty and staff members in high school personnel and high-achieving peers, schools and higher education are not trained and benefited from these. For instance, one nor informed about how to assist participant said that he had done well in undocumented students with their unique school and was well-liked by his teachers. challenges. Therefore, when a staff member in the If these are the challenges faced by admission office could not help him with how undocumented students, it is also worth to apply for financial aid, he went back to his noticing their strategies of response to this high school and asked for support from his situation. Perez et al. (2009) found that school network. The school staff helped him undocumented Latino students with high with financial information and his teachers levels of personal and environmental pooled money to help pay for his first-year protective factors reported higher levels of tuition at UC San Diego. Close relationships academic achievement than those with school and college personnel thus undocumented students who showed lower mediated some of the negative effects of levels of personal and environmental factors. academic barriers. In other words, having personal Undocumented Latino students also characteristics that constituted resilience, such applied to a few programs that afforded them as problem-solving skills, autonomy, high the opportunity to continue their education. positive expectations, and a sense of purpose For instance, in California, some allowed them to navigate the school and undocumented students were also AB540 higher education systems and eventually students. The term “AB540 student” (after accomplish their academic and personal goals. the Assembly bill 540, signed into law in In particular, supportive parents, teachers, and 2001) allows some to pay in-state college community allowed undocumented Latino tuition. The AB130 and AB131 bills also students to face obstacles with determination allowed some undocumented students to and to continue achieving their goals. apply for state funds in California colleges and “Relationships with school counselors and universities. Some undocumented students teachers [were] particularly important sources qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood of information and guidance” claimed Perez Arrivals (DACA), which protected them from et al. (2009, p. 3.) Parental emotional support,

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deportation and, in some states, granted them a work permit and a driver’s license. Hernandez et al. (2010) encountered a similar Siemons, Raymond-Flesch, Auerswald, and attitude to the “win or lose, I’m here today” Brindis (2017) conducted nine focus groups discourse. When they asked one student about with 61 DACA eligible Latinos residing in Los her situation in the light of a stringent Arizona Angeles and San Francisco, all of whom had law, “She shrugged her shoulders: ‘I was applied to DACA, because of the benefits it coming to the university knowing that the offered them. For instance, it provided next day I may not be here. I’m prepared if I greater autonomy, a sense of belonging, and have to leave’ ” (p.70). This same student access to apply for a work permit and a expresses “frustration with the ‘people who driver’s license. The researchers concluded, cry about’ the situation.” “Without the need to hide their status, Another discourse that Morales et al. participants expressed feelings of belonging document is what they call the “choosing to and normalcy” (p. 546). There was also a fight” discourse. It results in expressions of positive impact on the relationship these resistance and social and political activism. students had with their families through being Here is a typical statement representing this eligible to work and contribute to living discourse: expenses. Gonzales, Suarez-Orozco, and Dedios- I am very actively involved with the Sanguineti (2013) found that Latino DREAM Act. I don’t see how it could be undocumented students coped with their any other way, after all I am so dependent limitations through participation in civic on it. I can’t just leave it up in the air and engagement and advocacy. One of their hope that it comes true. I need to fight for participants mobilized to start a dream team it. And that is what I am doing. (Morales club on campus for undocumented students. et al. 2010, p. 278). She said, “There was no club whatsoever that could help students who were undocumented, Hernandez et al. (2010) also point to the they felt alone. And now, like that I have advantages over other students of being helped to create that club, I see the students undocumented. It brings forward a certain and they are like happier” (p. 17). The toughness in some and puts them in touch researchers’ comment was that it was with their problem-solving skills. Said one understandable that meeting others in the student: same predicament reduced a sense of isolation. I think I have a unique ability to think Another theme is represented by Morales, outside the box and find a solution. I’m Herrera and Murry (2011) as the “win or lose, not limited by narrow blinders; I can see I am here today” perspective. This discourse other ways to do things. I feel I have . . . is represented by the following statement: well, the ability to survive (Hernandez et al. 2010, p. 71). We are here to succeed and contribute to this country. I didn’t ask to come here but However, this student went on to admit that I’m here today. I’m glad my family came such a position was not for everyone. [and] gave us an opportunity to follow the Jimenez-Arista & Koro-Ljungberg (2017) dream. . . . They always tell me that nobody analyze the utterances of an undocumented can take what I have learned . . . my student who is active in resistance. She makes education. So I will keep going until they a telling distinction. “I don’t have an identity tell me I cannot go to college anymore crisis. I have a papers crisis” (p. 12). It is (Morales et al., 2010, p. 277) clear that this statement is an effort to shrug

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off a deficit logic and replace it with a logic driving a wedge between family members. based in resistance. The same student goes Mahatmya and Gring-Pemble call for families on to make the following statement: to be treated as intact units in immigration policy, rather than making it all about There is going to be limitations, there is individuals and what they might offer to the going to be challenges, but I think for me American society and economy. at least, a lot of those limitations and Another concept that helps appreciate the challenges have re-shaped who I am and plight of undocumented students is Guy have really given me the strength, and Standing’s (2011) concept of precarity. given me sort of that little push to say, Standing argued that we now live in a world in “Maybe I am not a normal person” (p.12). which a sizeable portion of the population occupies a socio-economic position below What results is a growing political awareness. that of the working class. He went as far as to call this population a social class in its own And that was what pushed me you know right, one that offers people a precarious to start organizing and getting very social position with negligible rights and politically involved with the rest of the privileges. Undocumented students, when DREAMers. And that’s when we formed they are prevented from working, getting a the movement to start pushing for the driver’s license or undertaking university study DREAM Act. And it was a huge part. in some states, certainly are candidates for Even the word DREAMer did not really such a description, as are non-unionized part- exist until we were pushing for that and time workers, the unemployed, voluntary getting our stories out there (p.12). interns, beneficiaries on welfare, and so on. The research documented in this paper has Political awareness leads further still in this made it clear that undocumented students in statement. schools and universities are best not treated as a singular population. Their needs and I really hope that other DREAMers really concerns vary greatly. Some students might see that they don’t give up on what they struggle with lack of academic and financial want to do, and if there might not be a way assistance and others might need more social- paved for them, maybe they can pave their emotional support. A compassionate own way, and maybe there is a different response to these concerns demands that way. Perhaps [DACA] is not everything. professionals forsake stereotyped responses We don’t have residency, we don’t have and seek to understand and consider citizenship, but someday we are going to undocumented students’ unique experiences be able to apply [to universities] and pay and coping strategies to better assist them in-state tuition. For now, we just have to with financial and academic resources. Also, keep fighting (p.13). as educators it is important to advocate for undocumented students’ needs, because these The DREAM Act is not without problems, students truly want to pursue a higher however. Mahatmya and Gring-Pemble education and contribute to society. (2014), for example, pointed out in their However, there are currently gaps in the discourse analysis of the language in which it available research that have not yet been was talked about by both supporters and addressed. For example, there is not enough opponents that its benefits were couched in research done on how schools and higher individualistic rather than in family terms. education counselors are meeting the needs of The Act represents children as innocent but undocumented Latino students and their their parents as wrongdoers, potentially families. Researchers could start examining

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the strategies and resources that effective stories of fear, drive, and survival. New counselors use when working with Directions for Student Services, 2010 (131), 67- undocumented students. There is also limited 84. DOI: 10.1002/ss.368. research on the impact DACA has on Homeland Security. (2015). Consideration of undocumented students. Most studies focus Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on what DACA is about, but there is limited (DACA). Retrieved from knowledge on how DACA positively and http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consi negatively has affected the academic, social, deration-deferred-action-childhoodarrivals- and emotional aspects of the lives of these daca students. We know that DACA promotes Jimenez-Arista, L. E. & Koro-Ljungberg, M. belonging, peer support, and greater adult (2017). Spiral struggles and dialectical responsibilities, but more research needs to be tensions in the life of a successful done on this topic to expand our knowledge. undocumented student. Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, 12, 1- References 17. Abrego, L. J. (2006). I can’t go to college Mahatmya, D. & Gring-Pemble, L. D. (2014). because I don’t have papers: Incorporation DREAMers and their families: A family patterns of undocumented Latino youth. impact analysis of the DREAM Act and Latino Studies, 4, 212–231. implications for family well-being. Journal of Education Week, (2011, October 19). Gov. Family Studies, 20 (1): 79–87. DOI: Brown Signs Part II Of California 10.5172/jfs.2014.20.1.79. DREAM Act. Education Week, 31 (8) 4. Morales, Herrera & Murry (2011). Navigating Gonzales, R. G. (2010). On the wrong side of the waves of social and political the tracks: Understanding the effects of capriciousness: Inspiring perspectives from school structure and social capital in the DREAM-eligible immigrant students. educational pursuits of undocumented Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 10(3) immigrant students. Peabody Journal of 266–283. DOI: Education, 85, 469-485. 10.1177/1538192708330232 Gonzales, R. G. (2011). Learning to be illegal: Perez, W., Espinoza, R., Ramos, K., Undocumented youth and shifting legal Coronado, H., & Cortes, R. (2009). contexts in the transition to adulthood. Academic Resilience Among American Sociological Association, 76, 602-619. Undocumented Latino Students. Hispanic Gonzales, R. G., & Chavez, L. R. (2012). Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 9, 1–33.. New “Awakening to a nightmare”: Abjectivity Directions for Student Services, 131, 35–51. and illegality in the lives of undocumented doi:10.1002/ss.366 1.5-generation Latino immigrants in the Siemons, R., Raymond-Flesh, M., Auerswald, United States. Current Anthropology, 53, 255- C. L., & Brindis, C. D. (2017). Coming of 281. age on the margins: Mental health and Gonzales, R. G., Suárez-Orozco, C., & wellbeing among Latino immigrant young Dedios-Sanguineti, M. C. (2013). No place adults eligible for Deferred Action for to belong: Contextualizing concepts of Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Journal of mental health among undocumented Immigrant and Minor Health, 19, 543-551. immigrant youth in the United States. doi:10.1007/s10903-016-0354-x American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 1-26. Standing, G. (2011). The Precariat: The new Hernandez, S., Hernandez, I., Gadson, R., dangerous class. London, U.K. & New York, Huftalin, D., Ortiz, A. M., White, M. C., NY: Bloomsbury. Yocum-Gaffney, D. (2010). Sharing their Thangasamy, A. & Horan, D. (2016). secrets: Undocumented students' personal Lowering the cost barrier to higher

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education for undocumented students: A promising university-level intervention. Journal of Latinos and Education 15 (2), 113– 120.

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