Stanford student paper promotes petition advocating for illegal immigrants

Stanford University’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, promoted a petition supporting illegal immigrant students. In the “letter to the community,” titled, “Undocumented students are hurting,” four students shared their experiences, each under a pseudonym, of being in the country illegally.

“I felt that after coming to Stanford, I might be able to forget about my undocumented status,” said one student under the pseudonym, Amaryllis. “However, the reality was that I couldn’t. Amaryllis noted that they are not a DACA recipient and that she is one of the 10.2 million individuals who have not received any form of legal protection.

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“I have navigated Stanford without any form of documentation, the ability to legally work, any guidance from faculty or administration and very limited resources from the ethnic communities I am a part of,” said Amaryllis.

Another student under the pseudonym, Lavender, talked about how they had a rough start.

“I was pushed around from one person to the next as no one was able to figure out why I could not enroll in classes, even though I told everyone I interacted with that I was an undocumented student,” said Lavender. “Staff were not provided with the proper training to deal with these situations.”

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One student under the pseudonym, Hyacinth, said, “It is time we tell our stories, refute the heinous slander associated with the undocumented community and demand immigration reform, especially now more than ever.”

The letter included a petition in support of illegal immigrant communities since the new restrictions to the Obama-era program, DACA. Some of the demands listed in the petition include increasing funding and resources for hiring “professionals of color who are better trained” on working for illegal immigrant students, as well as creating a task force to train faculty to better support the community. 

The petition garnered more than 900 signatures of allies and members of the illegal immigrant community.

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Also included in the article are pre-written email templates to the Stanford administration to support these calls.

Campus Reform reached out to the university and to the Stanford Daily newspaper for comment regarding the students’ demands but did not hear back in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @JezzamineWolk