Including Undocumented Latinx College Students With Disabilities' Experiences and Opinions in Immigration Activism, Policy, and Law

• In Event: 79.044 - Education in the Trump Era at the Intersections of Latinidad y Discapacidad: Unraveling and Resisting the Ideological Braid of Neoliberalism and Nationalism

Abstract

Objectives
This paper will present the experiences and opinions of undocumented Latinx college students with disabilities regarding current immigration activism, policy and law as it relates to education. It also merges a Disability Critical Race Studies (Dis/Crit) lens into immigration research with a goal to develop new advocacy, policy and legal strategies that include immigrants with disabilities (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013).

Theoretical framework
I draw on intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) and Disability Legal Studies (Kanter, 2011) to demonstrate how this administration’s immigration laws, policies and rhetoric contribute to the production of disability, enforce a White-abled-bodied norm, and further the project of neoliberal and nationalist ideology. Additionally, I use a person-centered, feminist approach to include the lived experiences and opinions of Latinx college students with disabilities in proposals for immigration activism, policy and law (Docuet & Mauthner, 2007).

Methods
Utilizing key informants at ten universities in major cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Austin, Berkeley, Miami, and Albuquerque), this study will conduct 20-30 semi-structured interviews with undocumented Latinx college students (or individuals who in the past three years have had some some college experience or graduated from college) with disabilities with origins from Mexico and/or Central America who immigrated to the U.S. before they turned ten-years-old and are currently between the ages of 18 and 25 years-old. I will engage in conversation with my interlocutors to understand their experiences in family-life, school and the workplace and how laws such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) and policy proposals such as the DREAM Act have impacted their lives. Given the newness of this research, I will use aspects of Grounded Theory methods to code my data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Ultimately, my research utilizes a legal/policy framework with the goal of my results informing grassroots activism, policy and litigation efforts to change immigration law.

Results
The findings reveal the shortcomings of proposals of immigration activists in promoting immigration policies that in-adequately respond to the intersectional lived-experiences of Latinx immigrants with disabilities. I demonstrate the necessity of including the voices of individuals living these multi-dimensional lives and how the Discrit framework used to critique immigration law provides a better understanding of and solutions to immigration policy and law.

Significance
Immigrants with disabilities have been overlooked in the academic, policy, and grassroots arenas. Intersectional analysis is needed to achieve justice for and include the experiences and voices of immigrants with disabilities in proposals for changes in immigration activism, policy and law. This work includes an understanding of the multiple systems of oppression that undocumented Latinx college students with disabilities simultaneously encounter. For example, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) addressed barriers to inclusion in employment based on citizenship status by granting temporary work visas (DACA, June 15, 2012). However, DACA did not address the employment discrimination faced by immigrants with disabilities because of disability discrimination. Thus, immigrants with disabilities who received DACA may have found DACA insufficient at addressing their employment access needs based on their disability.

Author

• Katherine Perez, National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities