Undocumented Students Continue Fight For Financial Aid
When Jesus Enciso, a 22-year-old undocumented student from Boston, was a senior in high school, he found out that his legal status was going to prevent him from attending college because he couldn’t apply for financial aid. Like Enciso, many undocumented students cannot afford college because they are ineligible for grants, and that is why they are currently fighting for state financial aid.
“It’s hard because there were so many schools I fell in love with but couldn’t afford. I knew that if I had a legal status I would be there right now,” said Enciso. “It made me feel worse.”
According to a study published by the UCLA Labor Center in 2014, 65,000 of the millions of students graduating high school every year are undocumented. Some 90 percent of them cannot afford college.
The State Dream Act would open up state financial aid to undocumented students. Currently five states, California, Texas, New Mexico, Minnesota and Washington, allow undocumented students to receive state financial aid. Other states, such as New York and Massachusetts are currently debating whether to enact similar legislature.
In March of 2014, the New York Senate defeated the State Dream Act. With 32 votes needed to pass, the bill came up two votes short with 30 in support and 29 against. Opponents of this act said that the state should first try making college more affordable for those in this country legally.
In a statement made to the New York State Senate Chamber in March of 2015, Senator Mark Grisanti said, “I cannot vote on this legislation simply because of spending tens of millions of taxpayer’s dollars annually on illegal immigrants when so many legal families are struggling with the high cost of a college education.”
Dominique Hernandez, a field organizer for the non-profit NYSYLC, is trying to keep New York’s Dream Act alive.
“We’re building leadership among undocumented youth and pushing certain campaigns,” said Hernandez. She added she can’t predict what will happen because the members of the state senate are the same. But we’re not giving up,” she said.
Hernandez said that after completing high school, undocumented students who attend college follow different trajectories. Some postpone college for a few years so that they can work and save enough money for tuition. Others go to college but also work, taking every other semester off to save money. It usually takes eight to ten years for these students to finish their four-year degrees.
Enciso followed the first path, working for two years at a factory and part-time at a local restaurant before starting college. He was able to save up enough to enroll as a part-time student at Boston Architectural College in September of 2016.
“I do telemarketing for eight hours a day then go to class,” Enciso said. “I started last year but I’m considering taking more time off to save money.”
While some undocumented students are finding ways to pay for their college education, those ones who cannot afford it leave their dreams of a post-secondary education behind and head straight into the workforce, said Hernandez.
Luis Gomez, 25, an immigrant and human rights activist from New Bedford, Massachusetts was one of those undocumented students who had to give up on college. After graduating from high school, Gomez got a fake work permit and started working 80 hours a week at a fish market, waking up at 5 a.m. every day.
Gomez says many undocumented high school graduates have fake work permits. They then apply to jobs through specific agencies that take a large percentage of their income. He says that bigger companies don’t want to take responsibility for hiring undocumented workers, which is why it lets the agencies do the hiring.
“Because many undocumented students cannot afford to go to school, they are working jobs where they’re being taken advantage of,” Gomez said. “They work long hours in factories and barely make minimum wage.”
In June 2012, the Obama administration passed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an immigration policy that allows certain undocumented immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday and before June 2007 to receive a renewable two-year work permit and exemption from deportation. However, the act doesn’t allow for undocumented immigrants to apply for in state financial-aid or other state grants.
“The government gave us DACA, which was great,” Gomez said. “It meant that they want those workers, but it seems like they don’t want those workers to be educated. That pathway is still blocked for us.”