Underground Undergrads: UCLA Undocumented Immigrants Speak Out

Book Talk and DVD Presentation

Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM EST
Johnson Center Cinema

As part of our ongoing series of forums, Migration Projects @ Mason is pleased to announce a book talk and DVD presentation of Underground Undergrads: UCLA Undocumented Immigrants Speak Out. Kent Wong, Director of UCLA’s Center for Labor Research and Education, and Mantias Ramos, UCLA graduate and immigration rights activist will discuss the DREAM Act, an important piece of legislation designed to ensure that all students have access to higher education.

Every year tens of thousands of students who have grown up in the United States and graduate from U.S. high schools face uncertain futures due to their undocumented status. The DREAM Act, bipartisan legislation introduced to Congress in March 2009, seeks to reform current immigration law that keeps the children of undocumented immigrants from gaining legal residency and limits their access to the life-changing opportunity of undergraduate education. Also known as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, passage of this legislation would initiate two major shifts in how this population is treated under the law: It would permit students who have grown up in the US to apply for temporary legal status, and to ultimately secure permanent status and eligibility for citizenship after attending college or serving in the military. The legislation would also eliminate penalties incurred by states that provide in-state tuition regardless of a student’s legal status.

Our speakers will not only address the significance of the publication of Underground Undergrads, which chronicles the challenges and triumphs of young people striving to achieve an education under the most desperate circumstances, but will speak to broader questions of immigration reform, including: What are the potential pitfalls of linking military service to access to legal status? And how might the growing consensus about the necessity of providing a path to citizenship for undocumented students be expanded to include the millions of undocumented workers crucial to our economy? Please join us as our speakers engage these and other important issues in a timely and and crucial discussion.

If you have any questions, please contact Debra Lattanzi Shutika.