Abstract
IDEAS is the undocumented student support group at University of California Los Angeles. This ethnography follows their planning of a conference on immigrant rights legislation. How do undocumented immigrants engage in active citizenship? Patterns of student activism are seen during the conference planning process. IDEAS members emulate Freirean ideals. Schwarzenegger expressed sympathy, but issued vetoes; students learn leadership on their own terms and learn organizing on professors’ terms. Despite their agency, IDEAS members are disenfranchised and marginalized in specific ways. For university support services, the political engagement of undocumented activists raises important issues. For researchers, this illuminates gaps between conceptualizations of active citizenship and legal citizenship.
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