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Editorial: Napolitano responsible for responding to undocumented students’ demands

By Editorial Board

May 14, 2015 2:23 a.m.

On the first day of the University of California summit on undocumented students last week, UC President Janet Napolitano’s opening address was cut short when a cadre of undocumented students in the audience rose from their chairs, fists in the air, and demanded recognition and restitution from a president they have never trusted.

Over the next two days, Napolitano largely failed to provide that. Although she eventually had an open discussion with students, she changed the agenda of the summit at the last second, removing herself from an important panel discussion, and once again refused to discuss or acknowledge her previous role as head of the Department of Homeland Security, where she oversaw almost 1.5 million deportations.

If the events of the summit showed anything, it’s that Napolitano still has a long way to go in showing herself to be truly committed to justice and access for one of her University’s most vulnerable communities. She can start that long road by making an immediate effort to implement the most pressing demands students articulated to her at the summit.

One of the most important requests students made at the summit was the creation of undocumented student legal services centers at every UC campus, similar to the one at UC Davis, which serves not only students but also their families. Currently, undocumented students at several UCs do not have consistent access to legal consultation or services of any kind. Those UCs without a law school are especially vulnerable, but even here at UCLA, an immigration lawyer is available on campus only intermittently.

For students whose presence on campus is constantly threatened by their own possible deportation or the deportation of their family members, intermittent access is not good enough. Where full-fledged legal services centers are not possible, a full-time immigration lawyer is.

Students also demanded mandatory training for campus employees as a way to help inform them about administrative actions that apply to undocumented students, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It is daunting for students to apply for jobs or take advantage of campus resources like study abroad when the staff or faculty in charge don’t understand their legal situation and don’t know how to handle their cases in a sensitive way.

In another attempt to make undocumented students feel secure, attendees demanded that undocumented students have a confidential resource on campus, similar to sexual assault survivors’ confidential resources. That confidential resource would not be required to share any information about undocumented students in a court of law, protecting students from being testified against by the very people hired to help them through the University system.

The demands listed here represent only a very small portion of what was presented at the summit, but they are all within administrative reach. The $5 million allocated by Napolitano to undocumented student resources at the start of her term shows that she has the authority and ability to effect change for this community.

Now, Napolitano should regenerate her relationship with undocumented students by specifically responding to each demand presented at the summit, and realistically giving a timeline for the resources that she can help make a permanent part of what the UC can offer to its undocumented students.

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