University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Hope and higher education: undocumented students and the legacy of U.S. immigration policy

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Hope and higher education: undocumented students and the legacy of U.S. immigration policy

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HOPE AND HIGHER EDUCATION:
UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS AND THE LEGACY OF U.S. IMMIGRATION
POLICY

by

Adriana Janovich

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirement for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)

August 2012

Copyright 2012 Adriana Janovich

ii

Dedication
For José and Esperanza Ramos and undocumented students in this country who aspire to
go to college despite the obstacles stacked against them.

iii

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank José and Esperanza Ramos and their parents as well as my thesis
committee: members Estela Bensimon and William Celis, and chairman Roberto Suro. I
would also like to acknowledge the Annenberg School for Communication and
Journalism at the University of Southern California, the Yakima Herald-Republic and the
Sunnyside School District in Sunnyside, Wash.

iv

Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract v
Chapter One: Separated by Birthright and Border 1
Chapter Two: From Mountains to Fields 6
Chapter Three: A Legacy of Failed Immigration Policy 11
Chapter Four: Undocumented Students and Education 14
Chapter Five: The DREAM Act 21
Chapter Six: Lives in Limbo 24
Chapter Seven: Election-Year Policy Change 27
Chapter Eight: Sidebar on Birthright Citizenship 31
Bibliography 34

v

Abstract

On paper, the siblings look a lot alike. The same straight As. The same Advanced
Placement courses. They are even in same graduating class. Despite their similarities,
though, they could be heading down two very different paths. One can securely live and
work in the United States as an American citizen. The other fears deportation to a country
of which he has no memory, the place where he was born but hasn’t been since he was an
infant.

José and Esperanza Ramos, separated by a birthright and a border, illustrate the long,
bitter and ultimately inconclusive debate over U.S. immigration policy during the last
three decades. This report follows them for more than a year, from a couple of months
shy of their high school graduation through their first year of college and into the middle
of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a hot-button issue marked by partisan
politics and disjointed public policy.

The United States has restricted immigration since the late 19th century. Unauthorized
entry is a crime, and those who enter illegally are subject to deportation. Still, some 11 to
12 million undocumented immigrants live and work in the United States. Roughly six in
10 are from Mexico. Some of them bring their children.

José — and other undocumented students like him, young people brought here illegally

vi

by their parents — are part of the legacy of the last thirty or so years of failed U.S.
immigration policy. Now, a generation of undocumented students — many of whom live
in mixed status families, like José — are coming of age in the country in which they were
raised but not born, a country that doesn’t recognize them as belonging here, a country
that doesn’t really know what to do with them.

Some 65,000 undocumented students graduate from American high schools each year.
Only 5 to 10 percent continue on to college. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision —
Plyler v. Doe, which celebrated its 30
th
anniversary this summer — upheld students’
rights to public, K-12 education regardless of immigration status. But it didn’t answer
questions about college. Nor did it make provisions for what might come next, leaving
undocumented students largely in limbo after high school graduation.

Policymakers have been considering legislation to deal with the undocumented children
who were brought here by their parents for more than a decade. The DREAM — or
Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — Act was first introduced in
2001. President Barack Obama repeatedly has said he wants to sign it into law. But it
continually has been thwarted in Congress.

On June 15, on the anniversary of the Plyler v. Doe decision, Obama used his executive
powers to bypass Congress and order his administration to stop deporting undocumented
immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. While the election-year policy change

vii

offers some protection, the lives of young, undocumented immigrants like José remain in
limbo. These young people have been given a chance to stay and work but not to belong.
The executive order does not make it easier for undocumented, college-bound students to
seek higher education. It does not give them a pathway to citizenship.

1

Chapter One: Separated by Birthright and Border

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — José Ramos isn’t the kind to ask for help. When he needs
advice, the young man with the doe eyes and solemn disposition usually seeks his sister.

But, as a sophomore at Sunnyside High School, he wanted to talk about the steps he
needed to get to college, a place no one in his immediate family had been. So, he sought a
school counselor. He didn’t have an appointment. Looking back now, though, he’s not
sure that would have mattered.

“She said, ‘I don’t know what to tell you,’” he recalls. He thinks she probably also
wished him, “Good luck.”

José aspires to be an engineer. His sister and confidant, Esperanza, wants to be an
anesthesiologist. She’s slightly younger and a little more outgoing. José is somewhat
more reserved and slower to smile than his sister. He seems to posses the seriousness of a
much older man.

On paper, in high school, the pair looked a lot alike: The same straight As. The same
Advanced Placement courses: Calculus, Chemistry, European History, Composition.
They were even in same graduating class. His Grade Point Average was 4.355. Hers was
a smidgeon higher: 4.368.

2

It takes a trip back in time to find the thing that sets them on different paths, a thing that
could mean a career as a professional or lifetime of work pruning branches and picking
fruit — or worse. Esperanza, 19, can live and work securely in the United States as an
American citizen while José, 20, fears deportation to a country of which he has no
memory, the place where he was born but hasn’t been since he was not quite a year old.

This is a story of two siblings who are separated by a birthright and a border. They
crossed it like they have done most things in life: together — only she was an unborn
baby in their mother’s womb and he was an infant, carried in her arms. And that has
made all the difference.

The effects of their invisible divide culminated during their senior year of high school,
when the brother and sister were applying to — and figuring out how to pay for —
college.

This report follows them for more than a year, from a couple of months shy of their high
school graduation through their first year of college and into the middle of a presidential
campaign in which immigration is a hot-button issue marked by partisan politics and
disjointed public policy.

3

The siblings’ experiences mirror the long, bitter and ultimately inconclusive debate over
U.S. immigration policy during the last 30 or so years.

They agreed to share their story about struggling with school and immigration status on
the condition that their names — as well as the names of their immediate family members
— were changed. The oldest daughter, the middle of three children, chose her pseudonym
without hesitation: “Esperanza,” Spanish for “hope.”

Nearly 20 years ago, that’s what their parents carried with them across the border, along
with a few personal belongings and José, a baby, born in Mexico like his parents.
Esperanza came into this world about two and a half months later in the Yakima Valley
of Washington state — a birthright, border and some 14 months away from her brother.

Both José and Esperanza faced barriers to their education: a low-income economic
background, English as a second language, immigrant parents who didn’t make it past
middle school in their native Mexico.

They also both fared better than most, conquering obstacles that derail many students,
documented or undocumented. They graduated from high school with honors and got into
college.

4

But that day in the counselor’s office during his sophomore year, José learned his sister
had a fighting chance. He also realized everything he had done — taking tough courses,
hunkering down and studying hard, like his sister — might be for nothing. Although he
says he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t aware of his immigration status, he also
says he finally understood — really understood — how difficult it would be for him to
pursue his dream.

Of going to college. Of studying engineering. Of working in an office instead of an
orchard.

That feeling followed him throughout his final two years of high school and into college.
It’s with him still, even though — on June 15, a week after José’s final exams of his first
year at university — President Barack Obama granted some reprieve, ordering his
administration to stop deporting undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as
children, undocumented immigrants like José.

The president calls his executive order, issued on the 30th anniversary of a landmark
court case that upheld students’ rights to public elementary and secondary education
regardless of immigration status, a “temporary, stop-gap measure.” He also says it does
not provide amnesty nor immunity.

José still has reason to be nervous and afraid.

5

“There is no certainty in my future,” he says. “I feel like everything I do is something that
may not work out.”

As he struggles to cobble together tuition for the coming year, his fate — like Obama’s
— will be an issue in the November election.

As an undocumented student, his future remains uncertain.

6

Chapter Two: From Mountains to Fields

The siblings’ journey to college starts in a village near Coalcomán, Michoacán, in the
western Sierra Madre Mountains. That’s where their father, Raul, met their mother,
Maria, when he was 18 and she was 17. Both were younger than Esperanza and José are
now. And they were only a couple of years older when they left, in March 1993, paying a
“coyote,” or smuggler $300 each — including baby José — to get them across the border
somewhere near Tijuana.

They say they came here, to Central Washington’s dairy farms and fields, in search of
“una vida mejor,” a better life. Higher wages for Raul and Maria. Access to schooling —
and the chance to go to college — for the kids, so one day they won’t have to work on the
farms or in the fields.

The Ramos family settled in Sunnyside, the largest outpost in the fruit basket of the
Lower Yakima Valley, where early frosts and late freezes can obliterate a season’s worth
of work and a good harvest can produce “more apples, mint, winter pears and hops than
any other county,” according to Yakima County’s website.

The small farm town is surrounded by dairy farms, orchards and fields — for growing
cherries, grapes, asparagus — and hopes. On the edge of town, a sign on the Yakima
Valley Highway lets passers-by know this is the “Home of the Astronaut Bonnie

7

Dunbar,” although she has long since moved away. Sunnyside also boasts one of the
largest Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the state as well as a Lighted Farm Implement
Parade, which draws crowds each December.

This is a place where the Darigold cheese factory is one of the main tourist attractions,
most people — some 82 percent of the 15,800 who live here — are Hispanic, few have
gone to college, and nearly a third — some 27 percent — live under the federal poverty
level. More than a third — some 35 percent — are foreign-born.

This is a place where old farmers proudly proclaim that milk comes from cows, not
cartons. It’s also a place where the post office — listed on the National Register of
Historic Places — is for sale. So is the boarded-up movie theatre across the street from
the high school, one of the country’s persistently low-achieving schools, or those in the
bottom 5 percent in each state.

Sunnyside High School’s graduation rate hovers around 60 percent, an improvement over
the siblings’ freshman year when not quite half of the senior class graduated. Students
here — documented or undocumented — face all kinds of obstacles: high rates of teen
pregnancy, gang violence, drugs, poverty.

The poorer kids in this town live in the lowlands to the north, south and east. Most
members of Sunnyside’s middle-class — those likely to be among the 9 percent with a

8

bachelor’s degree — live atop a hill on the west side. At the Ramos household, a modest
ranch-style home at the foot of that hill, a palm-sized American flag peeks from behind a
drainpipe.

America is the only home José remembers.

“I know nothing else other than here,” he says. “My life has been here; it has not been in
Mexico.”

He admires his parents for what they went through to get here, their work ethic and for
taking him to the fields — “pretty much every summer,” José says — to work the cherry,
pear and apple seasons and show him and Esperanza where they don’t want to spend the
rest of their lives.

While they come from modest means, the siblings’ home-life is stable. They have a roof
over their heads, and they don’t share it with another one or two other families. Both of
their parents are working. And their mom — who worked in the fields for 17 years —
makes it home early enough to cook one of Esperanza’s favorite dinners: “camarónes al
diablo,” a hot and spicy shrimp dish.

“I’m grateful that they did this for us,” José says of his parents’ decision to come north.
“They risked a lot to give us better opportunities.”

9

At the same time, he says, “I feel like I am an outsider, looking in. I don’t feel like I’m
from anywhere, really. I’m just kind of living here.”

Now 41 and 40, Raul and Maria Ramos have lived here almost all of their adult lives,
returning to Mexico only once each — separately — to see family. It’s a place their
children know through stories. José, not quite a year old when he left, has no memory of
the motherland. His two younger sisters — Esperanza and 12-year-old Marisol, also born
in the Yakima Valley, like her sister — have never been there. They have never met their
grandparents.

Still, Raul says, “Part of my dream came true. We are still here, and my kids are going to
school. They have been doing good in school. So I’m happy for that. The part I’m still
waiting for is to see them graduate from college.”

He only made it through seventh grade. “After that,” he says, “I had to go to work.”

Today, Raul fears his son — because of his immigration status — could end up in the
same place they worked so that their children wouldn’t have to: the fields.

10

With more education, higher wages and increased job security than their parents, U.S.-
born children of immigrants generally enjoy upward gains in mobility. For undocumented
young people like José, however, the trajectory is much different.

“A generation later, they find themselves where their parents started,” according to the
report “Growing Up in the Shadows: The Developmental Implications of Unauthorized
Status,” published in the fall 2011 Harvard Educational Review. “This is a deformation
of the American Dream where children expect to do better than their parents.

“In some cases, unauthorized youth will pursue college and earn a degree but
nevertheless face barriers to employment without a means to change their immigrations
status, despite their skills and credentials. Ultimately, many unauthorized youth are
forced deeper and deeper into an underground work force where they will be vulnerable
to depressed wages, lack of benefits and other forms of exploitation.”

11

Chapter Three: A Legacy of Failed Immigration Policy

The United States has restricted immigration since the late 19th century. Unauthorized
entry is a crime, and those who enter illegally are subject to deportation. Still, according
to the Pew Hispanic Center, some 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants live and
work in the United States. Roughly six in 10 are from Mexico.

In the Yakima Valley, many immigrants — documented and undocumented — come
from Michoacán, the same state from which José and his parents hail. Its capital, Morélia,
and Yakima, the seat of the county with the same name, are sister cities.

Migrants from Michoacán have long been making the journey to “El Norte,” the north,
for agricultural jobs. From 1942 to 1964, approximately 2.5 million Mexican farm
laborers came to America — including Central Washington — to work under a now-
defunct, federal guest-worker program. The Bracero Program allowed Mexican nationals
to temporarily toil in the U.S., where the demand for workers — especially during World
War II — was growing. In all, braceros — which comes from “brazo,’ the Spanish word
for “arm” — held some 4.5 million contracts.

After the program ended, Mexican workers continued to come north. In the 1980s, some
2.7 million people — including approximately 2 million Mexicans — received green

12

cards, or legal permanent residence, and a pathway to citizenship as a result of the
amnesties granted through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, or IRCA.

After IRCA’s enactment, the border — and employer sanctions aimed at curbing the
number of undocumented workers in this country — went largely unenforced. As the
U.S. government looked away, unauthorized immigration experienced prolonged and
steady growth and the undocumented population reached record highs. The largest
numbers of undocumented immigrants crossed the border in the early 1990s, when José
and his parents illegally crossed the border.

Flows dropped significantly after Sept. 11, 2001. And they have slowed in the current
recession. In fact, they’re the lowest they have been since the 1970s, producing a zero net
effect.

“There’s no net migrant influx from Mexico,” says Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the
Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. “The number of people trying to enter
illegally is the lowest since the 1970s.

José — and other undocumented students like him, young people brought by their parents
when they were children or, in José’s case, infants — are part of the legacy of the last
three decades of failed U.S. immigration policy. Now, a generation of undocumented
students — many of whom live in mixed status families, like José — are coming of age

13

in the country in which they were raised but not born, a country that doesn’t recognize
them as belonging here, a country that doesn’t really know what to do with them.

Their numbers are significant. According to the Harvard study, there are some 5.5 million
young people “growing up in the shadows,” or more than the combined populations of
the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Delaware, Vermont and
Wyoming. Roughly 1 million are undocumented, like José. Another 4.5 million are
growing up with an unauthorized parent or parents, like José and both of his sisters.

“We are only a small part of a very big picture,” Esperanza says. “We are the future
leaders of America. We are here. We are growing up in this country.”

By not enforcing its own laws, America created a legacy of undocumented students. And
— despite more than a decade of discussion, proposed legislation and promises — it’s
not dealing with these young people whose futures hang in the balance.

14

Chapter Four: Undocumented Students and Education

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision — Plyler v. Doe, which celebrated its 30
th

anniversary in June — upheld students’ rights to public, K-12 education regardless of
immigration status. But it didn’t answer questions about college — which, unlike public,
K-12 education, isn’t provided by states for free. Nor did it make provisions for what
might come next, leaving undocumented students largely in limbo after high school
graduation.

The U.S. Constitution is silent on the subject of education, leaving it up to individual
states. All have provisions in their state constitutions, commonly called “education
articles,” guaranteeing free public education from kindergarten through high school.

Every year, an estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools from
Washington state to Washington, D.C., according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Only 5 to
10 percent continue on to college, compared to approximately 70 percent of all students,
according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

With his high GPA, support from his family and a Washington state law, José is able to
beat the odds. Washington is one of a dozen states to allow undocumented students to
attend public colleges and universities at the in-state tuition rate. It was also among the

15

earliest. Texas and California were first, in 2001, followed by New York and Utah in
2002. Washington passed its law in 2003, along with Oklahoma and Illinois.

These measures bypass federal law. A 1996 U.S. law prohibits undocumented students
from receiving in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. The dozen states
that give undocumented students in-state rates get around the measure by simply not
asking whether they are in the U.S. legally.

The minimal and staggered passage of these measures is endemic of what’s happening
nationally: Slow and uneven change. On one hand, states like Washington have made it
easier for undocumented students to attend college. On the other, a handful of states have
made it much more difficult.

Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Indiana have explicitly banned in-state tuition for
undocumented students. Alabama and South Carolina have banned undocumented
students from enrolling in some or all public, post-secondary institutions. Undocumented
students also face restrictions from attending public, post-secondary institutions in North
Carolina and Georgia.

Around the country, getting into — and paying for — college remains a feat for most
middle-class and low-income families regardless of immigration status. It’s competitive.
A fraction of applicants is accepted.

16

It’s also expensive. In-state tuition at American public universities climbed more than 8
percent for the 2011-2012 academic year, according to figures from the College Board, a
nonprofit membership organization created to expand access to higher education. The
average total cost for room, board, tuition and books is more than $21,000. Out-of-state
students pay more, an average total cost of nearly $34,000.

The University of Washington — where José and Esperanza set their sights — is a
mountain pass and some 180 miles away from Sunnyside. With nearly 42,000 students on
its main campus in Seattle, its student body is nearly three times bigger than the
population of the town in which they grew up.

José and Esperanza wanted to go to the UW the same way they made it through high
school: together. But, even with the benefit of in-state tuition for both, their parents — a
dairy hand and a childcare worker — might only be able to help a little, if at all.

The UW received more than 25,500 applications for fall 2011. Fewer than 60 percent of
the applicants — a little more than 14,300 — were given offers.

José and Esperanza made the cut, becoming the first in their family to be accepted to
college. They received their acceptance letters on the same day: March 17, 2011.

17

Esperanza was also notified of some $23,000 in financial aid and, later, a Gates
Millennium Scholarship, given to students of African, American Indian, Asian Pacific
Islander or Hispanic descent who have high GPAs. The amount is based on need. Only
citizens or legal permanent residents are eligible to apply.

The siblings were the closest to college they’ve ever been. Still, it felt so far out of reach
for José. He worried one thing — money — would keep him from accompanying his
sister to campus.

“It makes me feel sad because I’m getting offered some money,” Esperanza says. “What
is he getting? Nothing.”

Most student aid — including federal financial aid — requires U.S. citizenship or legal
permanent residency. But some private scholarships are available to undocumented
students.

In-state tuition at the UW cost about $10,500 for the 2011-2012 academic year, more
than the College Board average of just over $8,200.

José had saved some money — “maybe like $3,000 or $4,000,” he says — but it’s not
enough for a full year at the UW. He applied for several private scholarships, but — two
months before graduation — was still waiting to learn whether he would receive them.

18

“It’s just like this huge pressure: OK, what am I going to do?” José says, sitting in his
principal’s office in April 2011, his voice faltering. “Everyone told me if you work hard
you can do whatever you want. I did that. I worked hard.”

But most of the teachers who told him that — as well as fellow students — weren’t aware
of his immigration status. Like other undocumented students at his high school and
around the country, José has carefully guarded the burden.

He keeps his head down and guard up, sticking close to home and spending most of his
free time with family. Besides his parents and sisters, “I didn’t really talk to anybody,” he
says. “I didn’t feel like I could talk to anybody.”

According to the Harvard report, that kind of vigilance and fear — as well as the growing
awareness of their liminality — shapes life for undocumented students, often affecting
their self-esteem and increasing anxiety.

The threat of deportation also leads to “lowered interactions and engagement with public
institutions, such as schools.” And it extends to dealings with police, landlords, bosses
and administrators of public assistance programs for which U.S.-born children of
unauthorized-immigrant parents would be eligible.

19

In the Sunnyside School District, “Families of students and students don’t really rush
forward to tell us they are undocumented,” says superintendent Rick Cole, who estimates
16 percent — or about 1,000 out of the 6,200 students in his district — is undocumented.

Because of Plyler v. Doe, Cole says, “Their status is not critical for us. We don’t check
social security numbers.”

But he’s well aware that changes when it comes to financial aid for college and
ultimately trying to embark on a career: “It’s not fair to the kids. They lose. They
severely lose.”

“It’s a Catch-22. It’s a moral issue,” agrees Heidi Hellner-Gomez, director of school
improvement for the Sunnyside School District. “So many of our students don’t know
what to do.”

José had a back-up plan: Stay in Sunnyside and attend Yakima Valley Community
College, or work — likely in agriculture or at a dairy like his dad — and save as much
money as possible, or a combination of both.

Esperanza had a back-up plan, too. She offered to get a job to help pay José’s tuition.

20

“He’s my brother. He’s my blood,” she says. “It makes me feel like I am in the same
situation.”

21

Chapter Five: The DREAM Act

As José and Esperanza worked their way through grade school and high school,
policymakers in Washington, D.C. were considering legislation to finally deal with the
undocumented children who were brought here by their parents.

The DREAM — or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — Act was first
introduced in 2001. It has been up for debate for more than a decade. And it has
continually been thwarted in Congress.

Under the DREAM Act, undocumented students could pursue their educational and
career goals, and ultimately contribute as much as $1.4 to $3.6 trillion in taxable income
during a 40-year-period, according to a University of California Los Angeles study.

Before they get to college taxpayers have already invested thousands of dollars in their
education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average state
spending per pupil nationwide was $10,297 in 2008, when the latest data was available. If
the cost was about the same for the last 13 years, that’s more than $130,000 for one
student who was educated in American public schools from kindergarten through high
school.

22

The biggest push for the DREAM Act’s passage took place in 2010, when inter-faith
groups, immigration rights advocates and undocumented students came out in its support,
staging marches and demonstrations across the country — and offering a glimmer of
hope to José and students like him.

The federal measure is aimed at helping higher education — and, ultimately, careers and
citizenship — become more accessible to undocumented students. The latest version
would provide a six-year conditional path to citizenship through college or military
service for some undocumented students — students like José, who have graduated from
U.S. high schools, lived here longer than five years and stayed out of trouble. Under the
proposal, they would qualify for in-state tuition in all states, not just the dozen that
already allow it. They would also be eligible for work and federal financial aid.

Like comprehensive immigration reform, the issue remains unresolved. With some
proponents pushing for large-scale immigration reform, the measure never gained the
traction it needed. In 2010, it passed the House only to be blocked by Republicans in the
Senate. When it was re-introduced in 2011, it didn’t have a single Republican sponsor for
the first time in 10 years.

“Nothing about the language of the legislation changed. The only thing that changed was
politics in Washington,” Obama told a largely Hispanic audience last year. “It’s
heartbreaking, to see innocent young people denied the right to earn an education, or

23

serve in the military, because of their parents’ action, and because of the actions of a few
politicians in Washington.”

The DREAM was killed in Congress — or at least deferred — before José and Esperanza
graduated from high school.

“The big question,” Alden says, “is what comes after.”

24

Chapter Six: Lives in Limbo

The siblings graduated on June 3, 2011.

Shortly after, José ended up in an orchard, stepping back into the world from which his
parents pulled themselves. He carried a ladder, pruned branches and picked fruit from 5
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week all summer long for minimum wage.

It marked the first time he worked in the fields without his family. He felt isolated, alone
and hot. In July and August, the average temperature in these parts hovers near 90
degrees.

“It’s a pretty menial job,” he says. But he notes he was happy to have it. “In my situation,
that’s kind of the only thing you can do.”

One day, he saw a worker — a man from Mexico who says he went to university there —
get fired “just like that, on the spot.”

“I felt like saying something,” José says, “but I never did because I didn’t want to lose
my job.”

25

In the fields, José says, workers are treated “like you are nobody. You get no respect.
(Bosses) would look down on you just because you’re Mexican. They know that most of
the people that work there are undocumented.”

This isn’t the “vida mejor” his parents envisioned for him. It is the life they worked so
hard not to pass on to him.

Standing there in the orchard, sweating under the hot sun, and holding a ladder in what
could become the hands of a college-educated engineer, José thought, “‘This is what I’m
forced to do.’ You see the reality of being undocumented. It’s very difficult, even with an
education.”

It was the same feeling he had his sophomore year in the counselor’s office as well as
senior year in the principal’s office — only it was worse. It seemed much more real.

This is where José he sees his future — unless something changes.

“I try not to think about it and hope for the best,” says José, who made about $4,000 in
the orchard.

26

By the end of the summer, he had enough money cobbled together from his savings,
paycheck, parents and half-dozen private scholarships — scholarships whose applications
request information about parents’ income and employment, but don’t require U.S.
citizenship — to pay for his freshman year at the UW.

On Sept. 18, 2011, the siblings moved to the west side of the state, sharing an apartment
with a friend in Shoreline, about 10 miles north of Seattle. They also share a car,
commuting to and from campus together.

“I’m very proud of them,” their father says.

Back home in Sunnyside, poster-sized graduation portraits are displayed in their family’s
dining room. One can’t tell by looking at the photographs — José in a black cap and
gown, Esperanza in red regalia — which sibling is here illegally.

27

Chapter Seven: Election-Year Policy Change

The first year of college for José and Esperanza was a lot like high school, when their
lives revolved around school, home and studying. The same was true in college, too —
only, they say, the pace was much faster. When there was spare time, Esperanza practiced
making her beloved “camarónes al diablo,” the hot and spicy shrimp dish that she likes so
much.

When they siblings came home for Christmas — the third time they returned home since
they went away to school — their mom made the traditional Mexican seafood dinner for
them.

“I feel lucky, very fortunate,” José says. “Things did fall into place. Hopefully, things fall
into place again.”

But, by December, he was already worried about how he was going to pay for his
sophomore year at the UW. And the stalemate surrounding comprehensive immigration
reform — including the DREAM Act — continued.

So did the Obama Administration’s record numbers of deportations of undocumented
immigrants, most of them to Mexico. According to figures from U.S. Immigration and

28

Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the annual number of deportations has hovered around
400,000: 370,000 for 2008, 390,000 for 2009, 393,000 for 2010, and 397,000 for 2011.

In addition, more than 93 percent of the people arrested under Obama’s Secure
Communities program are Hispanic, even though Hispanics make up about 75 percent of
undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The program, slated to be implemented nationwide
next year, empowers local law enforcement officers to carry out duties of federal
immigration officials in identifying and detaining unauthorized immigrants.

“You can’t solve the immigration problem simply through enforcement,” says Alden, the
policy analyst.

On the brink of another presidential election, Republicans have control of Congress and
comprehensive immigration — including the DREAM Act — has reached a standstill.

The Obama Administration, Alden says, has “done a lot of what that Republicans want
and extracted nothing in return.”

“I don’t think comprehensive immigration reform really has a chance at this point,” he
says. “I just don’t think it’s got a chance in Congress.”

In June, Obama used his executive powers to bypass Congress and order his

29

administration to stop deporting undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as
children and meet certain requirements. According to federal estimates, the election-year
policy change could affect more than 1 million younger immigrants, those who were
brought to the U.S. before they turned 16, remain under 30, have been here for at least
five continuous years, have no criminal history, and graduated from an American high
school or earned a General Educational Development diploma, or GED, or served in the
U.S. military. They can also apply for a two-year, renewable work permit.

“These are young people who study in our schools; they play in our neighborhoods;
they're friends with our kids; they pledge allegiance to our flag,” Obama said. “They are
Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper.”

While Obama’s executive order offers some protection, the lives of young,
undocumented immigrants like José remain in limbo. They’ve been given a chance to
stay and work but not to belong. The executive order does not make it easier for
undocumented, college-bound students to seek higher education. It does not give them a
pathway to citizenship.

It’s been referred to as the “DREAM Act Lite.”

It’s also been criticized as a ploy to gain Hispanic votes in November.

30

Four years ago, Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote. These days, critics complain
his deportation record contradicts his 2008 campaign promises on immigration policy,
including promoting comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act.

Obama reset the debate. But, even with his executive order, the issues remain resolved.
And they aren’t likely to be determined before the Nov. 6 presidential election. They
might not even play out in the coming administration — whether or not Obama is re-
elected.

José still does not know what kind of a life he can make for himself while Esperanza has
everything to hope for. In three short years, he could meet the fate his folks risked
everything to escape. José could end up picking cherries and apples for a living — with
an engineering degree on his wall.

31

Chapter Eight: Sidebar on Birthright Citizenship

The easiest way to become an American is to be born here.

When children are born in America, unless they are the children of foreign diplomats,
they automatically become U.S. citizens. Their parents’ citizenship and immigration
status are not considered. They are American by birthright.

American citizenship is guaranteed to those born on U.S. territory under the Fourteenth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States
and of the State wherein they reside.”

In the last 30 years, countries that had previously observed citizenship based on the
principle of “jus soli,” Latin for “right of soil,” have been adding “jus sanguinis,” or
“right of blood,” restrictions, requiring at least one parent to be a legal permanent resident
or citizen of the country of a child’s birth.

These restrictions are seen as a way to discourage illegal immigration. And they are being
discussed in the United States. The movement gained momentum in late 2010 and early
2011 when Republican lawmakers announced legislators in 14 states were working
legislation to curb citizenship rights for children of unauthorized immigrants.

32

As the number of undocumented immigrants has grown, so has debate over illegal
immigration, including limiting America’s birthright citizenship. Repeated bills have
sought to declare U.S.-born children of foreigners as outside the jurisdiction of the United
States and therefore not entitled to citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified
to confer citizenship on freed slaves after the Civil War.
Proposed legislation has attempted to limit citizenship to U.S.-born children who have at
least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. In fact, at least one
bill addressing America’s birthright citizenship has been proposed in Congress almost
every year in since the early 1990s, when flows of undocumented immigrants were
largest.
These proposals have all failed.
While critics argue they are unconstitutional, others contend the Fourteenth Amendment
isn’t being properly applied. The U.S. Supreme Court has never directly ruled on the
subject of birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.
At the heart of the question are so-called anchor babies, a derogatory term for children
whose birthplace is thought to have been selected in order to secure citizenship for one or
both parents. According the Pew Hispanic Center, children born to at least one authorized
immigrant parent make up 8 percent of all U.S. births, or a total of about 4 million

33

children in the U.S. in 2009. More than half of their parents have been in the U.S. for
eight years or longer.

They must wait longer than that before immigration benefits of having a child born in the
U.S. are felt, if they are felt at all. American children cannot sponsor their non-citizen
parent or parents until they are 21 years old. And if the parent or parents has ever been in
the country illegally, they have to prove they have left and not returned to the U.S. for at
least 10 years.

34

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Asset Metadata

Creator Janovich, Adriana (author)

Core Title Hope and higher education: undocumented students and the legacy of U.S. immigration policy

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Publication Date 08/02/2012

Defense Date 08/01/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag birthright citizenship,DREAM Act,immigration,indocumented students,IRCA,Mexico,OAI-PMH Harvest,Plyer v. Doe,undocumented immigrants

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bensimon, Estela Mara (committee member), Celis, William (committee member), Suro, Roberto (committee member)

Creator Email adrianajanovich@gmail.com

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