Those young immigrants who are undocumented and living here illegally may be seeing a rise in their opportunities, rather than fears of uncertain fates. ABC News recently profiled Western New Mexico University, a small college which has targeted undocumented students such as Grecia Rivas.
As ABC notes about DREAMers:
Another point is that other schools targeting such students are doing so “amid nationally declining enrollments,” and that they “are only encouraging the immigrant students… to apply despite the uncertainty of their careers after they graduate.”
State laws affect whether students can attend universities while paying in-state tuition, which they can do in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
Western New Mexico is even recruiting students from out of state, which they called a “no-brainer” move. This is especially when it enables them to grow their reputation into a school which has students from surrounding areas.
While Republican State Rep. John Zimmerman is pleased about the educational opportunities, he also expressed concern about the legal status. “We need to make sure that they have legal immigration status if they go to our state schools,” he mentioned.
At universities in California and Arizona, students have (with obscenities) protested border patrol recruitment agents advertising at job fairs, and demanded they not even be allowed on campuses. It seems that the government now has more to fear than those students not here legally.
