Information helps address fear among undocumented students

Are there going to be ICE officers on campus looking for people to deport? What if I’m stopped on the street and a police officer demands to see my ID? Will Mom and Dad be taken by ICE before I get home from school?

These are some of the questions surfacing among the approximately 408,000 undocumented college students in the United States, their families and other immigrants as the new presidential administration—which has promised mass deportations—prepares to take office. In addition, there are millions of children from immigrant families attending public K-12 schools. With campaign rhetoric still ringing in their ears, many are fearful that new immigration policies could upend their lives and put them and/or their loved ones in danger.

While much is still unknown, AFT affiliates in California are stepping up to provide as many answers as possible. At a teach-in Nov. 22 at the University of California, Los Angeles, labor representatives including Kent Wong—a vice president of the CFT (the AFT’s California affiliate) and a project director at the UCLA Labor Center—gathered with legal experts and undocumented college students who have long led the effort to change immigration policy on the macro level as well as to protect one another on the ground.

What we know, what we don’t know

Calling this “a complicated and difficult moment” that is “dystopian and awful for lots of people,” Ahilan Arulanantham, the faculty co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law also offered some hope. While no one can predict the future, he said, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers did not roam campuses in 2017, the last time Trump was elected.

University policies and state law make it “extremely difficult” for ICE to detain people at universities: Without a court order, they are forbidden entrance to student housing and building interiors, and school officials are not allowed to share information or otherwise cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Workplace raids are limited by a law that requires that enforcement officers have reason to believe the individual the enforcement officers are holding is breaking immigration laws; Arulanantham said they cannot legally line groups of people up against a wall and haul them all away.

Arulanantham also stressed that individuals confronted by immigration officials have the right to remain silent. In California, they do not have to show identification, either. They can ask if they are being detained and if they are free to go, even when faced with stern—and intimidating—authority.

Advocates are also aware that existing policies could be threatened as Trump officials take over immigration enforcement. “Tom Homan has already attacked L.A.,” said Wong, referring to the incoming “border czar” who has threatened to send extra agents to the city and dismantle its sanctuary status. “The fight is on.”

Creating community in the face of fear

Many of the students involved in immigration activism already know how to keep themselves and their families as safe as possible. But they want to be sure other undocumented people know, too, and they are committed to supporting their own communities.

Kent Wong
Kent Wong

“We really have to collectively honor and cherish the courage of these students who are stepping up once again to demand rights within our society at a very precarious time,” said Wong.

At the Nov. 22 event, four students shared their experiences and encouraged others like them to get involved with a seemingly fearless group Wong credited with much of the progress protecting undocumented people. They were at the forefront of the California Dream Act, which gives eligible undocumented students access to state-based financial aid. They led the fight for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which gives people who came to the United States as children temporary legal status so they can work, attend school and participate in civic life. Undocumented students also helped win the rights to a driver’s license and healthcare access in California.

Most recently, students and advocates have been working to pass Opportunity for All, a state law that gives undocumented students the right to work at California state colleges and universities. “If successful, this would be a national breakthrough in granting undocumented students the right to work,” says Wong in this AFT Voices post.

Several of the students, who used only their first names to protect themselves, described how their activism has helped create community with others like them. “Organizing was a way to come out of the shadows,” said Diego, who was passed over for a Ph.D. program due to his undocumented status. “I found a community [with] my peers … but more importantly a way to feel safe at a university that I call home.”

Union power

Cecily Myart-Cruz
Cecily Myart-Cruz

It’s stories like Diego’s that compel AFT affiliates to offer resources and solutions. The Los Angeles College Faculty Guild-AFT 1521 is training students to conduct Know Your Rights workshops. Teach-ins and flyers clarify immigrant rights, provide guidance regarding encounters with immigration officers and provide resources for more information. “This is a social justice issue,” says AFT 1521 President James McKeever. “Our union will fight for the rights of all our students to pursue their educational dreams.”

United Teachers Los Angeles is working closely with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles and El Rescate and holding near-daily meetings, webinars and phone calls, says UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. “We are going to fight for families, we are going to fight for our babies, we are going to advocate for educators who are undocumented,” she says. “We want folks to know we got their back just like we had their back in 2016 in the last Trump presidency.”

The union’s re-energized efforts reflect years of work with immigrants. Next summer will be the 15th year that the UCLA Labor Center’s Dream Summer has connected undocumented students to paid internships, many of which are with AFT affiliates. The AFT has long held partnerships with organizations like United We Dream, the National Immigration Law Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens, advocating for immigration reform. We support English as a second language educators with professional development and teaching resources and have also sponsored dozens of citizenship clinics for documented immigrants ready to become U.S. citizens.

Juan Ramirez
Juan Ramirez

“I believe that it is very important for us as an educator’s union to provide as much guidance as possible to our members and students,” says Juan Ramirez, executive vice president of the CFT and a vice president of the AFT. “My perspective as an educator is to make this society great. This happens when everyone has an opportunity to get an education. At this time of disruption, we will help and assist our members and students to continue on that education path.”

“When we bargain for the common good, it means that we lift up issues and concerns from our most marginalized communities,” says Myart-Cruz. “That’s what makes our union strong. Because we are lifting as we climb.”

[Virginia Myers]