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Do UndocumentedStudents “Play by the Rules”?

Julian Jefferies

Adolescent Literacy Policy

s we begin the 21st century, globalization patterns have changed the direc-tion and composition of the movements of people around the globe. As such,developed countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania are dealing withan increased number of immigrants from the global south crossing their borders,with various resulting themes in debates, policies, and regulations. The waythat immigration is talked about in the news has direct bearing on the ways thathealth, education, legal, and political institutions enact policies to deal with thisphenomenon.In the United States, among the various debates surrounding immigrants’positions and access to societal rights are the policy debates affecting the edu-cational opportunities of undocumented youths. Nationwide, there are an esti-mated 360,000 high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 24 and another 715,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17 who are considered undocu-mented youths (Van Hook et al., 2005). These young people are guaranteedaccess to a K–12 education, stemming from a Supreme Court decision againsta Texas state statute that denied funding for education to children who wereunauthorized immigrants. Although this court decision created some assuranceof access to K–12 public school education, there is no parallel federal policythat establishes pathways for undocumented immigrant teens’ access to higher education. Furthermore, their documentation status relegates them to manuallabor jobs with no benefits, compensation below the minimum wage, and noprospects of mobility.Access to higher education in the current economic context of the UnitedStates is of key importance for any individual to obtain access to a professionalcareer and fully participate in society. For adolescent immigrant students, accessto advanced literacy practices provides one avenue to obtain the cultural capitalnecessary to advance beyond routine manual labor. Policy that denies higher education for a certain sector of the population creates an underclass forced tosubsist on manual labor with no avenues for advancement.Concerning state-level policy, eight states have passed legislation that al-lows undocumented students who have graduated from a U.S. high school toaccess in-state tuition rates: California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico,Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington. These states allow for access to in-state tu-ition rates regardless of immigration status on the condition that students attendan American high school for a certain number of years, obtain a high schooldiploma, and have the intention of becoming permanent residents. This policy,

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illegals

illegal aliens

, assigning them an identityof criminality and therefore automatically question-ing their rights to access the benefits of society. Thisframe has origins in the broader national debate over immigration policy and political organizing, as oppo-nents have deemed it productive to garner oppositionto immigrants’ rights.The “illegal” frame was widely used by conserva-tive political organizers in the 2006 U.S. election asa hot-button issue to drive voters to the polls. Thisframe is advocated by four organizations that havemobilized toward restricting the rights of undocu-mented immigrants—the Federation for AmericanImmigration Reform (FAIR), Numbers USA, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and the AmericanImmigration Control Foundation (AICF). The framehas wide repercussions, because it has changed thelanguage of the pro-immigration or anti-immigrationdebate by the immediate assignment of negative char-acteristics to this population, helping sway traditionaladherents of a pro-immigration stance.Some proponents of the measures counter theillegal frame by finding alternative names for thispopulation, such as

immigrants

undocumented students

noncitizens

newcomers

, and

teens

. Other proponentscounter the illegal frame by placing blame not on thestudents but on the parents who brought them ille-gally into the country (e.g., “Children should not beheld hostage for their parents’ sins,” Vennochi, 2005,p. A11), thus positioning the students more favorablybut still within the realm of this constructed notionof legality.

The Role of Frames and Ideologies

Journalists do not report the facts or the truth but rath-er present the news in the context of a frame, allowingthem to process, report, and present large amounts of information in a quick and routine fashion. A framecalls attention to some aspects while obscuring others.To frame is “to select some aspects of a perceived real-ity and make them more salient in a communicatingtext, in such a way as to promote a particular prob-lem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluationand/or treatment recommendation for the item de-scribed” (Entman, 1993, p. 52). Proponents of the In-State Tuition Bill and the Educational Opportunityhowever, does not allow access to financial aid, whichpresents a strong barrier for a population with limitedeconomic means.

Media Representationsof Undocumented Students

In the State of Massachusetts, the context for analysisin this column, two initiatives were launched to allowundocumented students access to in-state tuition ratesand a path to citizenship. Drafted by an immigrantadvocacy group, the In-State Tuition Bill and theEducational Opportunity Act had similar languageto policy approved in other states. Neither of theseinitiatives obtained enough votes in the state legisla-ture in 2004 and 2006, but they did create a series of legislative moves and responses that prompted a localdebate about undocumented immigrants’ participa-tion in society. This column’s analysis centers on thenarratives used by proponents and opponents withinthis debate.A common narrative used by proponents of themeasures centers on the individual struggles of an un-documented student, such as Juliano, a Brazilian im-migrant who was brought to the United States by hisparents at age 13. A newspaper article (Woolhouse,2005) tells the story of how Juliano overcame a totallack of proficiency in English while sharing a one-bedroom apartment with his brother and parents.After three years, Juliano graduated from vocationalhigh school as one of the valedictorians. His hardwork, humility, and gift for computer programmingare highlighted in his success story. The narrativeends as the family decides to return to Brazil, hintingthat they cannot afford out-of-state tuition fees for this undocumented student in Massachusetts.This kind of narrative is a common one, present-ing undocumented students as hardworking, gifted,and overcoming insurmountable odds only to be dis-qualified from higher education and from their dreamby an unjust law. It is worth noting that opponents of the measure also use this frame, arguing that givingundocumented students access to in-state tuition willtake away funds from regular citizens, therefore dis-qualifying them from their own dream.A widely used frame for opponents of the measureprioritizes the legality issue, naming this population