Undocumented, But Still Pursuing An Education
Mission Loc@l


By Lily Mihalik

As the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom argue back and forth about sanctuary policy, life for undocumented students goes on.

They pack their lunches, walk to school, wear letterman jackets, and wonder about their future. What they don't consider is going home.

Andrea, a well-spoken 16-year-old living in San Francisco on an expired tourist visa, isn't worried about immigration deporting her. "I'm not going to do something wrong against the country, I just want an education," she said.

While the fractious immigration debate happens in one world, Andrea lives in another.

She's one of an estimated 1.5 million undocumented youth living in the United States. A large portion of that number live in California, which at 2.7 million, has the largest population of undocumented, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center.

Nearly half of all undocumented households consist of couples with their children, of which an estimated 73 percent are U.S. citizens by birth. "It's a growing trend," said Jefferey Passel, observing that more and more undocumented immigrants are having children here, instead of returning home to start a family. The remaining 27 percent of the children in undocumented households arrived after birth, and remain undocumented.

Like other cities around the country, San Francisco school officials never inquire about a student's legal status.

"We take in about 3,000 to 4,000 new students a year," said Darlene Lim, Executive Director of Educational Placement for the district.

Of these students, "it's impossible to say how many are undocumented, we just don’t track that," said Lim.

Students and parents alike are thankful for this leeway, it's one less thing to worry about. Rent checks often end up taking the priority as families try to make ends meet. Read more here.



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