“Hoping for the best but expecting the worst”

A Review of Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education: Sí se puede! By Alejandra Rincón

Dr. Rincón’s thoroughly researched book provides a comprehensive history and discussion of the court rulings, legislative actions at the federal and state levels and advocacy efforts related to undocumented immigrants at US colleges and universities, including her own state of Texas, where she has been a tireless advocate on this issue.  It is an essential reference for courses that discuss U.S. immigration history or U.S. immigration law, as well as for those who advocate on behalf of immigrants; including social services professionals, attorneys, higher education administrators and faculty, legislators, students and advocacy groups.  Readers will find inspiration in Dr. Rincón’s telling of the now decades-long effort to support the rights of undocumented immigrants to attend school.  One never forgets that there are countless lives behind each of the successful and unsuccessful attempts to provide equal access for this population of students.

What sets this book apart from other works on the subject are the contexts introduced by Dr. Rincón, the “historical, social, economic and political circumstances surrounding the debate.”  Dr. Rincón discusses the “long-standing contradiction whereby a significant part of the [U.S.] economy is built on the backs of undocumented workers, yet their children are denied the opportunity to attend college at nondiscriminatory rates.” 

While many of us who work with this population on a daily basis have believed that the initial court ruling on the issue of undocumented immigrants and access to education was the 1982 Supreme Court Ruling known as Plyler vs. Doe, Dr. Rincón reminds us that the question of immigrants’ access to public education is “nearly as old as the history of U.S. public education itself,” and provides references and a discussion of U.S. immigration legislation that dates back to the 1700s.

Dr. Rincón’s book elevates the immigration debate to a new level by introducing a discussion of how the current arguments in support of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants can be problematic to their cause.  Dr. Rincón makes the case that some of these arguments are in fact, insulting and denigrating.  Those problematic arguments, frequently used to rebuke anti-immigrant attacks, include that of economics- if these students attend college, they can then be productive members of their community; crime deterrence- if these students are not educated, they will instead turn to a life of crime; assimilation- these students have grown up in the Untied States, have learned English and have abandoned their national heritage; and lastly, that their lack of immigration status is not their fault, in effect claiming that the parents have victimized their own children by bringing them here illegally – these young people should not be penalized for the actions of their parents.  Yet the students and their families do not view the issue in that framework at all and are in fact, highly offended to be thought of as potential criminals. Instead, they view the issue as a matter of equality.

Dr. Rincón puts forth the idea that the discussion on higher education access for undocumented immigrants should be recognized as discrimination based on race and national origin rather than disguised as an issue of immigration status, and that advocacy efforts be framed in the context of equality, equity, and denial of democratic, human and civil rights and the impact this has on society as a whole.  An entire population of students is being punished simply “for the crime of having been born somewhere else.”*

The currency of this topic means that there is much more that remains to be written.  Many are hopeful that a new administration in the White House in the coming year will create an opportunity for this issue to once again be addressed at the federal level.  We can only “hope for the best.”

*cited as T.R. Marshall (2001) in the book.

Ellen H. Badger is the Director International Student & Scholar Services at Binghamton University which belongs to the State University of New York (SUNY) system. She is also co-author of “They Can't Go Home Again: Higher Education”.