UC Hasting law students assisted UC Santa Cruz undergrads
Law Students Help College Students Avoid Deportation
The increasing amount of people illegally crossing the U.S./Mexican border continues to be a heated topic of conversation. With the influx of children immigrating this past summer, the topic has at times inundated national media. The issues are profound. Who takes care of these children? Do we send them back into a bad situation or keep them here, which could also become a bad situation? They are children, so is it morally OK to just pass them off over-and-over?
Here’s another question: What if they do end up staying, being reconnected with families or placed in the foster system and then want to go to college? This is exactly what is happening at many campuses around the United States. Illegal immigrant children are growing up in America and wanting to go to college like their friends. Some of them don’t even realize they are here illegally until trying to get official documentation like a driver’s license.
This is currently happening at the University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC). The school enrolls roughly 400 students who are in the United States illegally and are facing deportation issues. Imagine going to class everyday, studying for exams, building relationships with professors and classmates…all while knowing that that you could be deported at any time.
In 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was passed to give immigrants who moved to the United States before their 16th birthday a two-year pardon from deportation. There are about 1.7 million immigrants in the country now who qualify for the action. But to be approved, it can sometimes take legal help. And that costs money.
This is where UC-Hastings law professor, Kelly Weisberg and her students enter. The professor, along with 18 law students and eight practicing attorneys, took the trip from San Francisco to Santa Cruz to host a free clinic helping 40 of the 400 students qualify for the action.
The reason clinics like these are special is that it shows the beauty of law and the legal profession. It is law students helping underrepresented and underserved populations. They are law students helping the people who really need legal counsel. Many of these students have dreams just like their fellow classmates. They just didn’t know America was their home country.
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Source: San Jose Mercury News
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