The undocumented population at UCLA often goes unnoticed, but the student group Improving, Dreams, Equality, Access and Success is working to change that.
After a successful year in which the group gained widespread recognition for its work, most recently, winning the President’s Award at the UC Board of Regents meeting last month, the group continues to advocate for the rights of undocumented students on campus.
With the passing of Arizona law SB 1070, which makes it a state misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to be in Arizona without the registration documents required by federal law, IDEAS has stepped up its efforts to pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors act, which would give undocumented students the opportunity to go to college and a path to citizenship.
Passing the act is a matter of urgency for the group. One out of five undocumented students in IDEAS has been forced to drop out of college due to the 32 percent fee hikes implemented this year, said Sofia Campos, a third-year political science and global studies student who is the advocacy chair for IDEAS.
12 million people in the U.S. and one out of every 10 people in Los Angeles are undocumented, Campos said, making the undocumented population a legitimate presence in the Angelino community.
Yet a very small number of undocumented students actually pursue higher education.
This year, IDEAS stepped up its advocacy efforts with teach-ins and rallies for undocumented students. In November 2009, they organized the “Death of a Dreamer’s Dream” campaign on behalf of undocumented students who would not be able to continue their education because of fee hikes. The names of these students were written and displayed on tombstones, symbolizing the death of their dreams for an education, said Nancy Meza, external representative.
“It shows that we’re not just faces or ideas. It shows that we’re actual people,” Campos said.
The group also set out to empower immigrant high school students through workshops aimed at showing them that higher education is possible for anyone to obtain.
“We are trying to dispel this myth that undocumented students cannot go to college,” said Claudia Lara, project director for IDEAS.
Recently, the group has had to deal with the effects of Arizona’s anti-immigration law, which is at the center of a heated national debate.
Members of IDEAS feel that while the law has hurt the undocumented community, it has also benefitted it by bringing immigration reform back to the forefront of American politics, Campos said.
Represented by about 80 students, IDEAS has come a long way since its inception in 2003, when the group only had 10 members. But because of the student fee hike, many of the group’s members have become only part-time students, and others have been forced to work up to four jobs to pay tuition.
Next year, IDEAS will depend more on the support of their partners in the Alliance for Dreams, a group of 25 organizations on campus that also support the passage of the DREAM act.
While many students will be relaxing at home this summer, members of IDEAS will be out on the streets and in contact with government officials, trying to pass the DREAM act to ensure the growing diversity of the UCLA campus for years to come.