Members of UCLA’s undocumented student group will host events this week about immigration reform and the immigrant experience in order to clear up misconceptions about undocumented individuals.
Immigration Awareness Week at UCLA will be held by IDEAS, or Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success. The week will include discussions, a film screening and a training session for people to learn how to support undocumented individuals.
The events will be catered to immigrants in general, but will particularly focus on the personal experiences of undocumented individuals, said Seth Ronquillo, an undocumented fourth-year film and linguistics student, IDEAS co-chair and a former Daily Bruin columnist.
There are currently about 900 undocumented students in the University of California system, and more than 450 at UCLA.
Even though the undocumented population at the UC is small, Ronquillo said there is still a need for the campus community to be educated about issues relevant to them.
IDEAS leaders see this week as an opportunity for documented students to stand in solidarity with those who are undocumented, he added.
“We want the campus to know that we are here and part of the community,” Ronquillo said.
Some UCLA students and alumni who are or have been undocumented said they have encountered misconceptions about their experiences.
Although many people think all immigrants today enter the United States without documentation, many of them come in with documentation only to have it expire, said Angelica Becerra, a Chicana/o studies graduate student who was formerly undocumented.
Becerra added that some students may also think all undocumented individuals come from Mexico, but she said she knows undocumented individuals who come from places all over the world, including the Philippines and Central America.
Leslye Osegueda, who is undocumented and graduated from UCLA in June 2012 with a degree in political science, said she does not like how some people have an ingrained image of who undocumented individuals are.
Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor of Chicana/o studies, said he thinks people underestimate the economic contribution of immigrants, including those who are undocumented.
Hinojosa-Ojeda published a study in 2010 which estimated that comprehensive immigration reform would cause the U.S. would to reap $1.5 trillion in economic gains within 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office verified those estimates and came to similar conclusions, Hinojosa-Ojeda said.
IDEAS awareness week aims to emphasize the more personal issues affecting undocumented students, Ronquillo said.
Some undocumented individuals said they are seen differently when they tell people that they are undocumented.
“We need to understand that (immigration reform) is a lot closer to us, and how much reform would mean to us,” Ronquillo said.
The American public in recent years has increasingly supported laws that would create a more certain future for undocumented individuals.
A national Gallup poll released in June found 87 percent of the respondents would vote for a bill to allow undocumented individuals to become citizens after a waiting period, paying taxes, passing a background check and learning English.
Many young undocumented individuals, including Ronquillo and Osegueda, are attending school or working through deferred action, a policy signed by President Barack Obama in June 2012 that allows temporary residence.
As of August, about 430,000 requests for deferred action were approved, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
But Osegueda said she thinks such reforms do not offer undocumented individuals complete security.
“You try not to plan too far ahead in time because we don’t know what’ll happen in two years,” Osegueda said. “We need something more permanent.”
An immigration reform bill was approved by the Senate this year and is currently with the House of Representatives. The bill, S.744, would require undocumented individuals to wait 12 to 13 years, undergo a criminal background check, and prove competence in English.
The complete passage of the reform bill is unlikely in the short-term because of some Republican opposition to it, Hinojosa-Ojeda said.
The progress of immigration reform may change next year, however, because it is an election year and the composition of Congress will change, Hinojosa-Ojeda said.
In the meantime, Osegueda said she hopes this awareness week will help change minds about immigration reform.
“I want other undocumented people to be empowered and know that it’s not shameful to be undocumented,” she said.