In the United States today, more than 11 million people are undocumented. In addition to the same pressures and risk factors as other Latino immigrants. Undocumented students face many unique challenges in finding a secondary school. Undocumented students are not eligible for federal financial assistance, many private scholarships, formal employment cannot obtain a driver’s license, and are often alive for fear of being deported at any time. For most of these students, legal status gives them the opportunity to start studying and follow their dreams: they have an uncertain future. This is a very compelling issue, as many of these students only know the United States. Many of these students are fluent in English and serve as interpreters for their parents. This allows parents to become accustomed to American culture and integrate well into society. These students may excel in medicine, law, education, business, and entrepreneurship.
The majority of these students were brought here at a young age of choice, based solely on their parents’ hopes for a better life, but because of their undocumented status, they may not be able to attend college or join the workforce. Another reason is that in some states, access to public facilities is usually the cheapest option. Some states offer research visits and government grants, while others prohibit undocumented students from fully enrolling. This is where the topic of The lack of financial aid and other supports for undocumented students eliminates economic and other benefits that could accrue to our society from a greater number of college graduates. Many of these immigrant students suffer trying to get help to pay for their tuition as well as keep their scholarships, most of the time these scholarships don’t really help them financially pay for their college which leads them to drop out of college.
As a result, undocumented students do not enjoy the same educational and therefore social and economic opportunities as American citizens. Undocumented students are struggling to continue their education at US educational institutions and therefore do not have the quality education available to US citizens and residents.
Due to issues related to American colleges without legal documentation, only about 5-10% of undocumented students graduate from high school and attend US college.
From family experience, many do not get the chance to go to college because it can be very expensive for them and the financial help that can be granted is via TheDreamact which is a scholarship for undocumented children trying to study in a college but only is available to those who attended a high school for 4 years and on.
Many who get the chance to continue and start college will be faced with after all their tuition not being fully paid and being let down. Most of the agents in school that are there to help specifically immigrant kids don’t always do their duty and most of the time let down these students who is just trying to keep a spot on their college career. Many times they are let down because “it takes time” or “it’s not easy to search for scholarships that benefit you”. In my family, the few people that have dealt with this situation almost left college because of the simple reason that they were looked down on when they were simply trying to look for opportunities. They were left with no hope because they can only do “so much” with their situation as undocumented students.“https://www.yesmagazine.org/education/2019/03/02/eight-brilliant-student-essays-on-immigration-and-unjust-assumptions”. Is a page where is full of essays and some are of many immigrant/undocumented student’s experiences while trying to study and maintain their position as well as to stay looking for help to keep up with their education. Here you will see so many essays which are based on the sad reality so many of these students because of their situation face and most of these things can be not being taken into consideration, not being well informed, and being left to go around into circles trying to find anything that can benefit them. Finally, the university must promise to work with undocumented students. If the university is accepting students who are no longer documented, then the idea of ”don’t ask, don’t say” should be switched to aggressive inclusion. Some universities have undocumented student-only admission pages with FAQs, resources, and contact information. Disclosure of such information is a small but useful act. It provides targeted support, where undocumented students rarely get but even advertising this most undocumented students don’t really get the help they need. In essence, it is not enough for a university to silently and passively accept undocumented students. Accepting undocumented students is not enough, but it does charge exorbitant tuition fees. If institutions generally welcome undocumented students by allowing them to apply, they deserve the same targeted support as American citizens in the application process and funding.
Not only do undocumented students struggle with many different educational opportunities, so do other students such as Asian Americans. Amy Tan states in her essay that this made her think a lot about her fellow Asian American students. she states, “Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.”pg.3 this proves that not only do undocumented students struggle with educational assistance but so do documented students who struggle with language barriers down the line towards their educational career.
There are many scholarships out there for undocumented students the challenge is to look for them. The most known scholarships for these students are TheDreamAct as well as TheDreamUS but they as well have requirements that not many undocumented kids can benefit from these. Most of the time if they even make it to being awarded, they do not be granted a good amount of money to pay for their tuition. And that’s where keeping up with college may fall apart because there can be helpful for many undocumented children just most of this help is very hard to find and in order for this, you need a lot of guidance which many fail to have.
The three most common roadblocks are as follows: (admission, tuition, and financial aid). There are strong restrictions prohibiting them from pursuing higher education, depending on the state in which they live. The second obstacle is paying for school since they are not granted resident status. According to UCSC, the cost to attend is higher. Dropping out of high school to join gangs or working for pennies on the dollar. The continual stress and fear that they won’t be able to do anything about their future, even after graduation, has shattered their aspirations and hopes. Many of these students with degrees in engineering and other fields of study are employed in low-wage occupations. Therefore, it is so important for agents that work in the department of undocumented students to guide them and try to help in any way possible for them to attend college and not be lost and without any hope to ever attend college and have their dream career.
