"One State One Rate" event takes participants inside the lives of undocumented students

At the Campus Y Saturday, students were handed one of three index cards — yellow, orange or green — to represent citizenship statuses.

During “Higher Education for Undocumented Youth,” a teach-in hosted by the N.C. “One State One Rate” campaign, attendees participated in a simulation to show the disadvantages undocumented immigrants face.

“Currently, undocumented students have to pay out of state tuition, and it’s really unfair, especially because they’ve been living there their entire lives. And so that’s kind of what the campaign is about, and this event is just trying to shed some light on that and also get people aware and excited about this issue,” said Rachel Park, a first-year and a One State One Rate executive board member.

Undocumented UNC students joined Moises Serrano, an activist on undocumented and queer issues, to speak about their experiences.

A few weeks before Alma Islas, a senior public policy major who helped organize the event, was supposed to move in and start classes at UNC, the University asked for her green card. She said her financial aid was taken away when she disclosed that she was undocumented. Islas withdrew and worked three jobs that year to save money.

“I happened to run into Golden Door scholarship, which is wonderful. It’s a scholarship for undocumented students and is essentially a full ride,” she said.

Sophomore communications studies major Rubi Franco spoke about the importance of getting to know the full context of the issue.

“One of the biggest reasons why we have a lot of people who don’t support an immigration reform or immigration reform bills is because they don’t have the knowledge,” Franco said.

Serrano shared his story and experiences.

“Throughout my whole life I always knew that I was different,” he said. “But it wasn’t because I was undocumented. I didn’t really realize what undocumented was until I was in high school. But I always knew that I was different because I liked boys.”

He said since undocumented students can attend public school through 12th grade but can have difficulty paying for college, he worked for three years after high school graduation to make a living and help his family.

“Nowhere — not with my friends, not with my government, not with my family — I never found protection. I never found love. I never found acceptance,” he said.

“I wanted to go to college — that was my dream. My dream was actually to come to UNC and study journalism, but that didn’t happen.”

Serrano said seven years after graduating from high school, he was accepted to Sarah Lawrence College, a private college, but he wasn’t given enough financial aid. He said after appealing the financial aid, he was able to have most of his tuition covered.

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