We, Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success (IDEAS) at UCLA are a collective of undocumented students and allies who represent and advocate for the interests and rights of undocumented students here on campus and throughout the nation.
Throughout the years, we, the undocumented community, have made gains in increasing equality and access to higher education for undocumented youth; Assembly Bill 540 and Assembly Bill 131 allow undocumented students to receive in-state tuition and state-administered financial aid, respectively.
On Aug. 26, on behalf of Earl De Vries, a former Republican candidate in the California State Senate, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the University of California Board of Regents to erase the gains that our community has made and deserves.
The lawsuit claims that it is unlawful for the UC Board of Regents to provide undocumented students with in-state tuition and state-administered financial aid due to the UC’s constitutionally independent status.
“Taxpaying California citizens deserve to have their hard-earned money spent lawfully,” De Vries said in a press release. “What the state is doing is not only illegal, it’s unfair to taxpayers.”
The case is founded on De Vries’ standing as a California taxpayer. He claims in the lawsuit that he has been “irreparably harmed and will continue to be irreparably harmed by expenditures … on illegal tuition benefits for unlawfully present aliens attending UC schools” by using his and California taxpayers’ money.
But did De Vries know that these “unlawfully present aliens attending UC schools,” are contributing California taxpayers? Did he know that these “unlawfully present aliens” contributed more to their local and state taxes than some corporations, who cheat on their taxes by going offshore?
In a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, state breakdowns showed that in California alone, undocumented immigrants’ contribution to state and local taxes – in the form of sales and excise tax, property tax and income tax – amounted to $2.2 billion in 2010.
In 2013, Social Security Administration released a report estimating that undocumented immigrants and their employers contributed $13 billion dollars in payroll taxes. And a seven-year study done by Harvard University professors showed that undocumented immigrants’ payroll contributed about $2.5 billion annually to Medicare, which undocumented immigrants do not qualify for.
We, the undocumented immigrant community, have always been seen by many politicians, or in this case an aspiring politician, as a political tool that will help further their goals and desires. They will propagate myths, which are nothing more than stories based in ignorance and misleading facts, in an effort to justify their continuous dehumanization of our undocumented community.
According to Judicial Watch, its mission is to advocate “high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life.” But is it ethical to deny California taxpayers their right to education? Is it moral to criminalize and dehumanize California taxpayers based on fraudulent lies?
Just because we do not have papers, just because we cannot vote, De Vries and Judicial Watch deliberately attempt to eliminate our right to educate and better ourselves.
We, the undocumented immigrant community, are a collective of California taxpayers, and we ask that our taxpayers’ money be used for the betterment of our community by providing undocumented immigrants equal access to higher education.
IDEAS at UCLA provides support and resources for the undocumented student community at UCLA.