Young immigrant rights worker relies on faith

Diana came to the United States from Mexico with her family when she was five years old. Now 18, she is a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying to be an architect. For that, she can take great credit, beyond her 4.4 grade point average (bumped past the top of the 4-point scale by honors and Advanced Placement classes) at Lane Technical High School, beyond a resume that includes leadership in the youth ministry at St. Ignatius Parish in Rogers Park. Diana and her parents are undocumented immigrants, in the process of trying to get legal residency. Until this year, she would have had to pay international rates to attend Illinois state universities, making it financially impossible for her to get a college degree. So she took a leading role in community efforts to change the law, meeting with politicians, community leaders and religious leaders. Those efforts that came to fruition when Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the bill into law, with Diana on the stage, last May.

Diana, who asked that her last name not be used because of her undocumented status, was honored Nov. 10 for her work by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development with its Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award. The award honors young Catholics who take leadership roles in fighting poverty and injustice.

She talked by telephone with Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin shortly after returning to Champaign from the award ceremony in Washington.

 

The Catholic New World: How did you first get involved in the fight to help undocumented immigrants, especially with in-state tuition?

Diana: It was actually through my parish, St. Ignatius. I and my family have been at that parish for many years. There was a seminarian there who knew about my status, and knew I wanted to go to college, and he was a volunteer with Organization for the NorthEast. He took me to a meeting, and I kept going.

Organization of the NorthEast is a community organization on the northeast side of Chicago, and my parish is a member. They are members of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights [both ONE and ICIRR receive CCHD funding], and they were working on in-state tuition, so we started working with them and just kept doing it.

 

TCNW: What’s the difference between what you have to pay for tuition and what it would be if the law hadn’t passed? Would it be possible for you to attend college without this law?

D: No, it wouldn’t. I think it would be something like $10,000 more. I’m still not eligible for any grants or student loans, but I do have a sponsor who is helping me.

 

TCNW: You’re a young person in a vulnerable position. What gave you the courage and confidence to speak publicly about this issue?

D: I’m not sure what it was. It has to do with the way I was raised, with the way my family was, with the confidence and courage I gained from them.

I also really think we were working for the right things. Dignity and justice and equality in education are the right things.

 

TCNW: How did your family react to your decision to speak out?

D: They’ve been very supportive. In our group, [ONE’s] Immigrant Strategy Team, there were other youth, other teens like myself, who couldn’t speak out because their parents didn’t want them to. It’s very difficult to overcome the fear. They couldn’t speak at press conferences, at huge assemblies. At times, not even their church knew about their status, or their friends, or their parents’ employers. But my parents always supported me.

 

TCNW: What role does your faith play in your work for immigrant rights?

D: The reason I started doing this was because I was personally affected. I was personally interested; I wanted to go to college. But if I’m ever in doubt, if the reasons I have are being attacked, I can look at my faith and Catholic social teaching and know my faith reinforces this.

Organization of the NorthEast is a community organization. They have parishes, churches from other denominations, they have businesses and banks as well. But to reach the undocumented population, you can always get in touch with them through the Catholic churches. We were always going to them to make announcements after Mass, to put up flyers, and we always felt the support of those pastors.

 

TCNW: What do you say to people who will read this and say you shouldn’t get in-state tuition because your family came here illegally?

D: I was 5 years old when we came here. It was my parents’ decision to come. It wasn’t my choice. I’ve lived here 13 years, and all this time, my parents have paid taxes, shopping and buying things, and income taxes too. But they can’t get any of that back. I think it’s only fair that we get the in-state benefits like other people who pay taxes.

 

TCNW: You’ve talked at large community meetings, to political and church leaders. What have you learned about truth and justice and politics and power and how they relate to one another?

D: Speaking truth to power is the most important thing. Once you tell your story and you share your truth, you find how they feel. Regardless of whom I’m speaking to—whether it’s a bishop, a state senator or a Congress person—once I share my story, I found I might face opposition, I might face someone unsympathetic. Support for the undocumented is not universal within the church, or, obviously, within the government.

 

TCNW: Did you find your courage in sharing your story changed people’s opinions?

D: I’m not sure it was my courage in sharing. A lot of people are just not aware. Most people don’t know how long it takes to become a resident. They’re not familiar with immigration law. They don’t understand why I don’t have a Social Security number, or what that means.

 

TCNW: Now that you’re busy in school, will you continue to work on this issue?

D: It was actually a really hard transition. We were working on a campaign to change the financial aid policy at Northwestern University—they don’t offer any financial aid to non-resident students, and I was accepted there but I couldn’t go because it’s really expensive.

I did meet with state Sen. Rick Winkel about the driver’s license issue (ICIRR’s initiative to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses) during the veto session, and he was the first Republican to stand up and vote for it. We only missed by one vote. I’m still involved, even if it’s not the same amount of time. I can still make a difference.