Undocumented Students in Higher Education-2012

College and University, 2008

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 2020

Undocumented students experience unique challenges and navigate intricate educational pathways in U.S. higher educational systems. This student population faces a wide range of social, economic, legal, and political hardships. Furthermore, they experience marginalization and vitriol due to their precarious immigration status. Not only must undocumented students learn which aspects of their identities to share with others but also how to do so within an ever-changing political and legislative landscape. To be certain, the number of immigration-related regulations, statutes, policies, rules, and formal/informal practices—across institutional, state, and national contexts—can be overwhelming and paralyzing for students and practitioners alike.

2013

A Path to Citizenship Through Higher Education 93 education is a burden on society. 4 More liberal and progressive Americans argue that these undocumented children need to be educated, and that choosing not to educate these youth will eventually become an even larger burden on society. 5 The Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe, a landmark case decided almost thirty years ago, addressed this very issue of providing a free public education to undocumented children. In Plyler, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a state could not deny undocumented immigrant children a public education. 6 The Plyler decision, however, is only applicable for primary and secondary school children. 7 Once an undocumented student graduates from high school, new issues arise, such as access to higher education, which must also be addressed. 8 Undocumented immigrants are individuals who either entered the United States without authorization, 9 or who entered legally, but remained in the U.S. beyond the permitted authorization period. 10 Since the 1980s, there has been an influx of immigrants into the 4 Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 227 (1982) (generalizing one of appellant's arguments which states an interest in the "preservation of the state's limited resources for the education of its lawful residents"). 5 Id. at 221 (arguing that "we cannot ignore the significant costs borne by our Nation when select groups are denied the means to absorb the values and skills upon which our social order rests"). 6 Id. at 230. 7 See id. 8 See generally CATHERINE EUSEBIO & FERMÍN MENDOZA, EDUCATORS FOR FAIR CONSIDERATION, THE CASE FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION (2013), http://www.e4fc.org/images/E4FC_TheCase.pdf (describing the social and economic advantages of a policy that assists undocumented students seeking higher education). 9 This is also commonly known as "EWI," or "entering without inspection." 10 UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS, supra note 1. The authorization period is the period on a visa, for which the bearer is allowed entry into the U.S. for a specific purpose. The date granted on the visa governs how long a person may stay in the U.S, and if the requirements are not followed, the person violates status and is considered be "out of status.

2012

I would like to thank my faculty advisor, Dr. Velma Lashbrook, for her patience, support and encouragement over the years as I took the longer than expected route of this journey. The idea for this research acfually came from dialogue in the many courses I took that Dr. Lashbrook taught. Her courses were challenging and provided opportunities for growth through the exploration of content and spirited classroom dialogue. In regard to the impact of classroom discussions, I have been inspired and motivated by *y fellow classmates in the MAL program and I am grateful to have learned with and from each one of them. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Thomas Morgan and Garry Hesser who graciously took the time to read and offer input on this body of work. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the influence of space. There have been two spaces that allowed me refuge from the chaos of daily life to complete this paper: the Gainey Conference Center and the Roseville Library. Thank you to Dr. Brian J. Bruess and Elizabeth J. Stevens from St. Catherine University for supporting my application to the Scholarly Writers' Retreat; time away from family was a sacrifice, but it was at the Gainey where I learned the importance and discipline of sacred writing time. Upon returning from Gainey, the good coffee, fuel efficient parking and comfortable work space at the beautifully renovated Roseville Library provided a haven for me to complete my work. lll ABSTRACT ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION FOR UNDOCUMEI\TED STUDEI{TS MEGHAN FLORES 2012 X Thesis Leadership Application Proj ect Non-Thesis (ML 597) Proj ect The framework for this research comes from my professional experiences with the undocumented student population at three small, private, liberal arts institutions. Through these experiences, I have encountered that due to the lack of policy andlor communications of policy, treatment of financial aid resources are not equitable among these students within the same setting. The agenda for the research comes from direct work with undocumented students who are seeking clarity on their options. There are no published data on how private higher education institutions are addressing the issue of access for undocumented students. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to collect data from a comparison cohort of private higher education institutions to determine what is being done to address the issue of access. The focus was to find out potential policy options for small, private liberal arts institutions to adopt to address the issue of accessibility. What I discovered was that responses varied from no response at all, to no access policy in place, to informal access polices in place.

Virginia Issues & Answers, 2007

Legislatures across the country are currently polarized over the issue of immigration. Interest groups and lawmakers sympathetic to immigrants-those here both legally and illegally-push for legislation that would allow these

New Directions for Student Services, 2010

2011

The research questions guiding this analysis are: (1) How do the formal educational experiences of unauthorized college students affect their postsecondary education goals? (2) How do undocumented students attend college on a daily basis (e.g., transportation, finances, studying, employment, support networks)? (3) What role does social, political, and economic support play in unauthorized students' success in college? The purpose of the analysis is to outline the most significant challenges that undocumented college students face in pursuing a postsecondary education. The intent is to inform a research community about those challenges and suggest future research directions. Research Design: The manuscript begins with an overview of previous research on the topic of undocumented immigrant postsecondary students. The authors discuss three traditional areas in which first-generation, low-socioeconomic-status students encounter difficulties while pursuing a college education-financial obstacles, academic preparation, and perceptions of belonging. The article then considers the challenges these students face by way of a yearlong qualitative study that involved interviews and observations with 40 students and 5 educators knowledgeable about undocumented students. The authors frame these findings within a social capital theoretical framework that helps identify two themes-relationships and finances-concerning how undocumented students' access to social capital can be limited by their immigration status.

International Migration Review

Our understanding of the sources of educational inequality for the estimated 250,000 undocumented immigrant college students in the United States is limited by poor data. We use student administrative data from a large public university, which accurately identify legal status and include pre-enrollment characteristics, to determine the effect of legal status on GPA and graduation. We find that undocumented students are hyper-selected relative to peers; failing to account for this difference underestimates the effect of legal status on academic outcomes. Our findings also highlight the ways legal status interacts with institutional settings and race/ethnicity to affect educational outcomes.