SDSU students caught by ICE (Daily Aztec)

SDSU students caught by ICE
Students demand immigration reform after two sisters were apprehended by ICE officer

Kristina Blake, Senior Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2009

Several weeks ago, two San Diego State students were apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and were held at Otay Mesa detention center awaiting deportation. According to the San Diego ICE Public Affairs Officer, the students are no longer in custody and were released about two weeks ago. The PAO would not further discuss the students’ cases.

Aluisa and Ledia Zace are sisters who came to the U.S. when they were 8 and 9 years old, seeking political asylum from their native country of Albania.

According to the Office of the Registrar, Ledia is currently a matriculated admitted student at SDSU and is enrolled in classes for the spring semester, while Aluisa is taking SDSU courses through Open University.

SDSU Registrar Rayanne Williams said that the university has not contacted immigration officials and is not involved in the case.

Chicana and Chicano studies lecturer Rodolfo Jacobo said that the issue of immigration and immigration reform needs to be addressed.

“The university needs to educate faculty and students on the issues,” Jacobo said. “I think that the debate is important to have, especially at the university.”

Jacobo has constructed conceptual theoretical framework to study how undocumented students negotiate every aspect of their lives. He said that although there is no way to know a definite number, of the approximately two million undocumented children in the United States, an estimated 65,000 graduate from high school every year and 50,000 go on to attend U.S. colleges and universities.

The Supreme Court’s 1982 decision, Plyler v. Doe, established that under the 14th Amendment, undocumented children are entitled to K-12 education.

“But it never addresses what happens after K-12,” Jacobo said. “There’s no discussion about that.”

Like the Zace sisters, many undocumented students continue to higher education and do not receive public financial assistance. Under California’s Assembly Bill 540, they do, however, get to pay in-state tuition.

Still, Chicana and Chicano Studies professor Isidro Ortiz said that most undocumented students struggle financially and continue to struggle after they graduate because they can’t find employment.

Nevertheless, they continue their education to earn a degree.

“We know they’re here in our classes,” Ortiz said. “They’re all throughout California, and in fact, all throughout the United States.”

The Zace sisters are not the only undocumented students to have attended SDSU.
Marco Castillo graduated from SDSU a few years ago and became well-known when he was offered symbolic sanctuary, when a group gives shelter to undocumented workers, by an interfaith group in San Diego.

Like Castillo, the Zace sisters have been offered sanctuary, too.

Ortiz said that immigration officials usually respect shelter locations and pick up undocumented workers in workplaces and neighborhoods. So, as long as they stay in the sheltered space, they are usually safe.

“Even if they receive sanctuary, they’re still vulnerable to be picked up,” Ortiz said. “But college campuses aren’t safe spaces in that sense.”

Like Jacobo, Ortiz believes that the university needs to “educate about societal issues.”

“They had little to say about being in the situation they’re in,” Ortiz said. “So they try to live their lives within the constraints impaired on them by law.”

At 4 p.m. today in Montezuma Hall, there will be a lecture on the struggles of undocumented students to receive a higher education. Students from SDSU and UCLA will share their experiences.

Sociology graduate student Arthur Reed is helping to coordinate the event.
“One of the main reasons why students should come is that we need dialogue about this issue,” Reed said.

In addition to today’s event, the immigration debate lives on. U.S. Representative Bob Filner has introduced a bill for the relief of Aluisa and Ledia Zace.