‘I’ll be risking myself just to get an education’: how local-level immigration enforcement impacts undocumented students’ pathways to college

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how local-level immigration enforcement practices shape undocumented students’ educational experiences and trajectories. Drawing on 71 in-depth interviews with immigrant young adults who grew up undocumented and attended a public high school in San Diego County, this article illustrates the increasing number of places that have become associated with immigration enforcement and subsequently deemed unsafe for undocumented students and their families. We find that this hostile landscape of enforcement powerfully shapes students’ trajectories, including the range of colleges that they apply to. More specifically, young adults often limited their college applications to only include schools located within San Diego County to avoid crossing federal immigration checkpoints and to be close to their parents’ home in the event of an arrest/deportation.