Editor’s note: The following is an open letter from the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA to University of California President Janet Napolitano, addressing a $5 million allocation she announced last month, which will go toward work-study positions and loans for undocumented students.
To Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California:
We, the Asian Pacific Coalition at University of California, Los Angeles, are a collective of 24 Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations. We are the official voice of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community on campus. Through our Principles of Unity, a code by which our organization abides, we stand for the right of underrepresented communities to access higher education. In particular, we are writing in support of the undocumented community and to urge that you direct your pledged $5 million, that are currently dedicated to loans and work-study programs, to other forms of financial aid for the undocumented community.
A decision to offer undocumented students more loans is troubling, as it ignores the struggles that they already face. For undocumented students, the pursuit of higher education is already a huge financial burden. Undocumented students are ineligible to receive many scholarships that require the applicant to have residential status. With student loans nationwide totaling more than $1.2 trillion, loans are problematic in themselves. Loans are especially hard to pay off for the undocumented community because of the complications of becoming eligible to apply for a job.
Of the approximately 11 million undocumented people in the United States, as estimated in 2011, roughly one million of them were Asian and Pacific Islanders. Asian and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing population in the United States today and represent the second-largest group of DREAMers.
Our histories are grounded in the immigrant and refugee experience, in which many of our ancestors have either escaped political persecution and wars in their home countries in the pursuit of freedom, or were in search of better opportunities promised by the American dream. Some have navigated toward the American dream through higher education, and as members of the workforce have contributed greatly to our economy. By offering loans instead of financial aid such as scholarships, you are currently creating more barriers forthe undocumented students in their journey toward higher education.
As John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, said in a hearing, undocumented students “are the ones who first learn English. They are the ones who learn American history and culture from school and their friends. It is our history and culture that they think of as theirs. And they are the ones who help their parents navigate bureaucracies, health care and jobs.”
To undocumented students, America has been what they call home.
We want you to fulfill the promise that you originally made. In your first public address as UC president, on Oct. 30, you stated that undocumented students “are students who deserve the opportunity to succeed and to thrive at UC.” In recognizing the right to higher education for underrepresented communities, we are demanding that the UC maintains its commitment to being a public institution that strengthens the academic achievement of students in communities throughout California. As the Office of the President manages the University’s public mission, you are directly accountable for the commitments made to ensure the academic success of all of California’s communities.
We stand in solidarity not only with undocumented Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but with all undocumented students across the UC. We demand that you, Janet Napolitano, redirect the $5 million that you promised to dedicate to the undocumented community to scholarships to aid them in their pursuit of higher education.
Signed,
Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA
Uyen Hoang
Director
Jazz Kiang
Assistant director of external affairs
Daniel Nguyen
Leadership development coordinator
Tony Tonnu
Social and cultural coordinator
Nicole Ngaosi
Academic affairs coordinator
Olivia Tran
LGBTQ programmer
Alice Giang
Asian Pacific Islander graduation coordinator
Heidi Leung
Administrative coordinator
Jimmy Nguyen
Co-community outreach coordinator
Jenny Chhea
Co-community outreach coordinator
Tiffany Mio Hamamoto
Alumni relations coordinator
Is this a joke?
Firstly, $5 million is hardly a “ridiculous” amount of money. I think you need to take some basic math classes again because you obviously need some basic number theory. Take this $5 million dollars and divide it among the 10 UC campuses. Smaller amount of money per campus right? But wait, there’s more! Take that smaller number and divide it further among the multitude of undocumented students per campus. Suddenly, that $5 million turns into a couple thousand per student. Furthermore, as if that wasn’t inadequate enough, the money isn’t even theirs to keep; they gotta pay it back eventually! So no, we’re not losing any money since the money is being heckled back from these undocumented students who can barely afford their education right now.
Secondly, this nation was stolen. Plain and simple. Our “founding fathers” stole this huge piece of land. They came to this country and never left. They set the precedent already so yeah, it is “OK” in America.
Thirdly, do you know what the definition of “public” even means? You’re probably scared of looking it up in a dictionary for fear of words and definitions changing so I’ll look it up for you. “Public” is an adjective that means “of or concerning the people as a whole”. AS A WHOLE. The whole includes everyone. Inclusive. Get your definitions straight. If you’re a human who has fulfilled the requisites for applying to a UC (nowhere in the requisites does it ask for citizenship status), you can apply to a UC.
Fourthly, that best not be a racial slur. “Open [my] eyes”? My eyes are open, thanks, and I see that there are laws that shouldn’t be there. There are reasons why we follow certain laws and there are reasons why we protest certain laws. Laws were written by fallible humans and are, in turn, also fallible. Laws reflect societal norms that were present at the time they were written. Guess what? Societal norms change and we have changed to realize that undocumented people are human (sorry we were so late in realizing that, being blinded by our nationalism and whatnot) and so we must question and attack laws that are outdated.
Fifthly, we owe everyone rights because there are rights written down on a piece of scratch paper and there are rights that are implicit among all humans. If a Frenchman came up to me and asked me for some water, I would not say, “oh zut alors, I can’t give you any water because I don’t owe you the right to request and receive water in my country, désolé”. So no, we do owe these people rights and there are rights that are implicitly theirs and there are rights that they still need to fight for because our laws have not caught up with society yet.
And finally, I would just like to point out that before we are citizens of a damn country, we are human beings. Get over YOURself and open YOUR eyes, which have been blinded by rampant nationalism and xenophobia. Stop branding these people in the same manner that people brand criminals or pests. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like you to be thankful that you even are a citizen of a stolen country and be thankful that our founding fathers were undocumented people too. Be thankful that the foundations of our land and the foundations of our society were built due to the strength of immigrants. We are all unworthy of being here and yet we are here so be grateful for that.
Let’s get this party started!
Firstly, to answer your question, NO, this is not a joke. Unless you think the Daily Bruin is a joke, this submission is most definitely not a joke. Go read the Daily Trojan. It can be found only 12 miles across town (and just in time for Beat SC week too and I’m sure they appreciate you reading their newspaper).
Secondly, the submission before this one got all of that right. This is a land of immigrants (obviously minus the Native Americans). This land was stolen by our Founding Fathers from the native inhabitants of this continent and then took away their rights to own the land they they had used for generations and generations before European arrival and to maintain their own lifestyles. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, it seems rather inappropriate to talk about “illegal” immigrants when our Founding Fathers themselves and the early settlers of this nation were in the same situation. We don’t “owe” anyone anything, you are right in that exact wording sense, but taking into consideration the circumstances of the birth of our nation and the arrival of these immigrants, if our Founding Fathers had “rights” to steal land from people already living here and kill massive numbers of those people, these undocumented students have rights to, at the VERY least, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And with that, they should be allowed an education to accomplish those three guarantees AND a homeland. As stated in the submission, many of the undocumented students recognize this as their home with English as their primary language. Some come as babies and didn’t even know they were undocumented until applying for school and finding out they can’t apply for scholarships and financial aid while their other classmates freely can. What right do you have to strip them away from the only home they have ever known? And have you read the US Constitution? In the Preamble, it begins, “We the People of the United States …,” not “We the Citizens of the United States …” They are people just as much as we are. And if you want to get into technicality, they were talking about free, land-owning white men at that time, but because the connotation has since changed to just meaning “people,” undocumented people are people too.
Thirdly, let’s not use the word “illegal” to describe these people. They are UNDOCUMENTED. No human being is illegal. They have every right to life just the same as you do. They simply do not have the necessary documents to be considered a “full fledged citizen” of the United States of America. There is no “aka illegal immigrants.” For someone who goes to one of the top-notch universities in the WORLD, you sure don’t know your terms and definitions.
Fourthly. I just LOVE how you noted that this is a “public” university. And you’re 100% right. This school here as well as the other 9 campuses of the UC system in a system of PUBLIC universities, meaning it concerns people of the WHOLE, which also means anyone can apply to them. International students are not citizens, but they sure as hell are entitled to apply to this PUBLIC university, so undocumented students have every right to apply as well. If it is beyond you, you need to go beyond IT and actually do research. Don’t be like Charley who wrote the uneducated article about the typhoon relief.
Fifthly, this is a nation of immigrants. In your instance, France is NOT a nation of immigrants. The majority of the population in France are French people who share a common culture, history, and background. The United States of America is not the same as France, Majority of the people in the US do not share a common culture, history, or background. I am almost certain your culture, history, AND background are drastically different from my own. In case you didn’t know what “majority” meant either, according to Webster dictionary (which is a trustworthy dictionary, if you didn’t know), a majority is “a number that is greater than half of a total.” Majority of the people in this nation are immigrants. Had they not stolen the land and then proclaimed their own “rights,” you wouldn’t have any “rights” either.
Finally, and THE MOST IMPORTANT, let’s push aside the undocumented student status and focus more importantly on our UC president following up on her words. Upon her stepping up to this position, she VERY publicly promised to give $5M to the undocumented students of the UC system, all 10 UCs, not just UCLA. Shortly after, she changed her word. Try researching her exact words on changing the $5M to student loans. THIS piece of information is not so public. She changed her word to say that she will be giving thee $5 in student loans instead of scholarships and financial aid. Janet Napolitano only stepped up to being UC president in September and she has already gone back on one of her promises. Do you know how many other promises she will go back on during her term as UC president? Is this how you want the president of 10 universities in the state of California to behave? Is that how you want all people with power to behave? It’s not simply about the undocumented students; it is also about the student population that she made a promise to and then took away. The fight should not be against a group of people who are essentially our allies. The fight should be about making sure the president of 10 UCs keeps her word and does what she promised to do because if she does it now so close to her stepping into office, who knows what she will be doing in the future? In a final note, I stand with the writers of this submission. We need to hold Janet Napolitano to her words and we need to make sure she follows through with those words. If she keeps slipping like this, everyone’s status as a student could be jeopardized.
In a final note, why are you bringing God into this situation? God created one race, the human race, and humans created hierarchies and labels. How do you know about how God thinks? “God, some of you” ignorant fools “on campus are getting more and more ridiculous each year.”
Oh America, you forget that you were build on immigrant blood, sweat, and bodies.
I guess it was cool that we came across the sea in 1496 and took the land from the Native Americans right? Cool right? In that sense, we’re not “illegal” right? No right?
Humans cannot be illegal. That is the joke.
Happy thankstaking.