By  Greg Lehman
Daily Titan Staff Writer

William Perez, author of We Are Americans, read out loud a chapter from his book of how some AB540 students are doing to pay for their higher education. Photo courtesy of Lucio Villa.

The Alliance of Students for an Equal Education and the Cal State Fullerton AB 540 Task Force hosted author and assistant professor William Perez at the Titan Student Union Pavilion A Monday evening. The night served as a time for the ASEE and the AB 540 Task Force to raise money for the Titan Dream Fund through a silent auction and donations as well as an opportunity for Perez to speak about his book “We Are Americans: Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream” and sign copies of the book.

Janet Perez-Molina, an academic adviser at CSUF who coordinated the event, said, “This is our kick-off event to introduce the Titan Dream Fund on campus. The Titan Dream Fund is pretty much an account that we established in order to get donations for scholarships for AB 540 students on campus.” Perez-Molina said of the night, “It’s a combination of a couple of items.” Silent auctions for art pieces and gift baskets would bring in money for the Titan Dream Fund. Perez would talk about his book and then the ASEE would present their effort on how they assist undocumented students at CSUF.

Dr. Esiquio Uballe, chair of the Task Force, said AB 540 legislation allows people to not pay out-of-state tuition. This includes people who have moved out of state and then returned to their home state wanting to attend school there. He added that a study done by University of California found that 70 percent of AB 540 students are permanent residents. “The majority of AB 540 eligible students are citizens and permanent residents,” Uballe said. “There’s only a few who are undocumented.”

Uballe said that it was important to remain sensitive to the needs of these undocumented students. “When you talk about these students, some of them who are undocumented, they come here and they become part of a marginalized community. Some of them live in fear of being discovered and that they could easily be deported, or their parents could be deported. So they live with a lot of apprehension; they live with insecurity, and so those of us who work with students as counselors and administrators, we have to take that into consideration in terms of how we can help these students be successful, realizing what they have to cope with day to day. They can’t have a driver, they can’t get a driver’s license. So how can they drive to school? They have to rely on public transportation or friends to bring them to school. There’s so many different things that college students have to cope with, and they have to cope with even more things in addition to the regular things that college students have to deal with.”

Perez’s book provides first-hand accounts from undocumented students going through high school all the way up to graduate school. Perez said that the book would show the facts of various studies that have shown the civic, social and economic contributions of undocumented populations. “The book is an attempt to provide the facts,” said Perez, “and to guide the discussion in a more constructive way so that we can get down to do the detail work of drafting and passing legislation and addressing this sort of civil rights travesty.”

Students line up to get their copy of We Are Americans signed by the author; William Perez, at the book signing event put on by ASEE. Photo courtesy of Lucio Villa.

One of the facts Perez presents in his book is an economic impact study conducted by the state of Texas. Texas was the first state to pass legislation to provide in-state tuition and also allowed undocumented students to receive public funding. The state controller’s office conducted a study that showed that for every dollar spent on undocumented students’ education, the Texan economy received $5 back. “That’s better than Wall Street,” said Perez. “The best Wall Street returns won’t give you a 500 percent rate of return, so it was an easy sell for Texas.”

Perez said one of the primary issues was that while the federal government carries out immigration laws, each state is required to educate their residents regardless of legal status. While the federal government has jurisdiction in immigration laws, the state handles education, and frustration occurs when the trade-off can not benefit the investment made in education. “Well, because the federal government can’t get their act together and they can’t agree on legislation,” said Perez, “the state is not able to get a return on their investment from educating undocumented students.”

Diego Gutierrez an ASEE secretary, said that the primary goal of their ASEE group is to provide support to undocumented students. “Support each other and help each other out,” Gutierrez said. Undocumented students have a lot to work through in their day-to-day lives, he said. “It’s a lot of emotional stress that you go through.”