IMMIGRATION: Undocumented college students find way to study abroad, return legally

Obscure immigration provision known as advance parole allows return to U.S.

Angel Quintero, 21, an undocumented student at UCR who studied abroad using advance parole, stands near the university's clock tower. Quintero said that studying abroad fulfilled a requirement in her Global Studies major.
DAVID BAUMAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

By ALEJANDRA MOLINA / STAFF WRITER

Published: Feb. 5, 2016 Updated: Feb. 14, 2016 10:34 p.m.

WHAT IS ADVANCE PAROLE?

Somewhat like a permission slip, advance parole is a travel document that gives someone advance authorization to enter into the United States after the person has traveled abroad for humanitarian, education, and or work purposes.
Travel for vacation is not a valid basis for advance parole.
APPLYING
DACA recipients can apply for advance parole and will have to submit the following:

  • An I-131 Application for Travel Document form, found at uscis.gov
  • Proof of the reason for travel
  • A DACA approval notice copy
  • A copy of a photo identification card
  • A $360 application fee


RISKS
Applicants may not travel outside the United States until after their DACA request has been approved.
Recipients who travel outside the U.S. without being granted approval for travel will lose their DACA status.
Those using advance parole will be inspected at the border when they return, and there is always a possibility that they could be denied entry, even if the government granted them permission to travel.
Source: Immigrant Resource Legal Center



Southern California university students and professors have discovered an obscure provision in U.S. immigration law that allows undocumented students to leave the country to study abroad and return legally.
They’re testing the process, known as “advance parole” by sending dozens of students to Mexico, Vietnam, and other countries through their university study abroad programs.
And even though none of the students had U.S. passports, they’ve successfully returned to the United States. Advance parole can be granted for educational, work, or humanitarian purposes.
For study abroad purposes, it applies to students who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States illegally as children.
Also, at least one immigration attorney says once they return under advance parole, they have entered the U.S. legally and this could allow some to apply for legal U.S. residency.
The provision is attracting interest both on college campuses and from anti-illegal immigration activists, who view the use of advance parole as an attempt by President Barack Obama’s administration to circumvent U.S. immigration law.
Some 6,400 DACA recipients have requested advance parole. And, more than 85 percent have been approved.
RECONNECTING
Some Southern California students have used the program to reconnect with their native Mexico and to see relatives they haven’t seen since their parents brought them to the U.S. when they were children.
Others are leaving the U.S. to experience and learn new cultures.
To Armando Vazquez-Ramos, a professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Long Beach, this is a legal way to use what the government has to offer and allow young immigrants to reconnect with their native country. He discovered the Advance Parole provision in 2014 and used it to take two students to Mexico that spring.
“I don’t think it’s so much the study abroad or visiting their country, it’s about reconnecting to their roots and also as adults now, not as kids,” Vazquez-Ramos said.
In December 2015, Vazquez-Ramos used advance parole to take 30 undocumented students from across Southern California to study and visit family in Mexico. He plans to take another round of students this summer.
Either way, for undocumented students who have largely lived in the shadows in their own communities, being able to leave the country and come back is a milestone, said Ana Coria, a program coordinator who assists undocumented students at UC Riverside.
“For a lot of students, it’s like a very new experience. To be undocumented, before DACA, they lived a very constricted life, both physically and psychologically,” Coria said.
“I think they’re excited to take that opportunity and experience something new and get a different perspective on life,” Coria added.
STUDYING ABROAD
For Angel Quintero, 21, studying abroad for a summer program was a way to fulfill a requirement in her Global Studies major.
Quintero is an undocumented student at UC Riverside and figured her status would pose obstacles to traveling abroad. She attended an information session at the university’s Study Abroad Programs and asked a coordinator there if studying in another country would be possible. Unsure, the coordinator directed her to the university’s undocumented student resources.

http://www.pe.com/articles/students-...ce-parole.html