In March 2019, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) implemented the California State University Immigration Services Project using a one-time allocation of $7 million in the 2018-19 state budget. Due to the overwhelming impact of the services—as of December 2023, an estimated 21,000 individuals within the CSU have received direct legal services through the project—the funding has become ongoing.
Qualified legal service providers offer free immigration legal services on campus, including education and outreach services, to students, staff, faculty, immediate family members, incoming students and recent alumni who have graduated within two years.
They also help immigrant students and staff understand any potential benefits or remedies they qualify for and empower them with information to navigate the everchanging system of laws and policy.
Barbara Pinto, who co-founded
Immigrant Legal Defense (ILD), and oversees the organization's Legal-Education Partnership with the CSU, wrote about the impact of the project in an
op-ed for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Pinto, a CSU alumna who was undocumented when she was completing her education at San Francisco State, says many of the students ILD meet with have never had a consultation with an attorney.
“One example is a client who received a screening just weeks before she was turning 21," Pinto wrote. “She had no idea that her father's abandonment of her as a child provided her grounds for immigration relief and a path to citizenship. The program changed her life because she now is a legal resident with a clear future in California, and on her way to finishing her degree."
Conferences and Events
The CSU held its first-ever Undocu Student Summit in March, bringing together more than 250 CSU students from across the state for a series of presentations and breakout sessions. The
summit, hosted by Cal State Long Beach, was designed to provide a forum for CSU undocumented and mixed-status students to network, build community, celebrate diversity, create inclusive opportunities and cultivate their leadership skills.
Individual CSUs host similar events for undocumented and mixed-status students and employees. Cal State Monterey Bay hosted its sixth annual
Undocu-Success Conference in April, which included CSUMB students, staff and faculty, along with partners from local community colleges.
“The conference played a vital role in ensuring that incoming undocumented students feel welcomed, supported and part of the CSUMB family," said Metelin Bock, CSUMB's undocu-success coordinator. “One of our key accomplishments was supporting local community colleges in ensuring transfer students have the necessary resources to transition to a California State University."
Sonoma State partnered with Santa Rosa Junior College in February to host the
Reach for Your Dreams Conference for undocumented high school and college students within Sonoma County and neighboring counties.
SSU Director of Equity & Access Programs Khou Yang-Vigil said the conference was one of the most significant collaborations between SSU and SRJC and demonstrated the university's commitment to creating equitable solutions for undocumented students.
"Everyone has a dream. Everyone has a goal. So, regardless of status, we should all have the same opportunity to grow, be nurtured and be our best selves," Yang-Vigil said. “So, let us provide that opportunity for everyone; this is our future out there."
San Francisco State's Dream Resource Center hosted its inaugural Research to Advance Services & Support for Undocumented Students (RASSUS) Summit in April, the culmination of a semester-long initiative designed to empower students to become ambassadors of knowledge, research and creativity called the RASSUS Fellowship. Students engaged in undocumented student-centered research projects, working closely with a staff/faculty mentor, and presented their findings at the summit.
SF State also hosts an annual
Undocumented Student Month of Action in October, which brings together key speakers and presenters to celebrate and inform undocumented students and allies.
Student Perspective
At the heart of every effort to support undocumented and mixed-status students is the drive to honor their humanity, and to enable them to fulfill their personal and professional dreams.
These efforts are to help students like
Gerardo “Jerry" Langarica Martinez, an alumnus of Chico State's kinesiology program (with an option in physical education teacher education) who is now enrolled in the university's Teacher Credential program. He arrived at Chico State a first-generation, reentry and undocumented student from a low-income background—a position that comes with many unseen setbacks.
“When you're undocumented, you basically start without any of the help and services that other people get right out of the gate," Langarica Martinez explained.
Thanks to his professors and staff at the Chico State Dream Center, Langarica Martinez became a leader on campus, serving as a volunteer in the university's
BE:WEL program, working as a coordinator with the
Paradise U Community Project and leading the Division 1 Chico State Men's Volleyball Club team to a 25th-in-the-nation placing at the national championships in Phoenix, Arizona as coach. In recognition of his work, the CSU awarded Langarica Martinez with a
2023 Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement.
“I've gotten a lot of resources, and I'm here today because of the team [at Chico State] that supports undocumented students," he said. “I'm really proud to be here. This has allowed me to accomplish a lot of my goals, and a lot of my dreams. I feel very well supported… I love being a part of Chico State."
Langarica Martinez is set to reach a long-held dream of becoming an educator and teaching physical education at a middle school and says his goal “is to create space where students feel like they belong, where they can take up space and know their worth as humans."
Learn more about how the CSU supports undocumented and mixed-status students, and watch the video below to hear how higher education has helped Chico State alumnus Gerardo "Jerry" Langarica Martinez fulfill his dreams.