Invisible Students Deserve the Chance to Succeed

Before transferring from UC Berkeley last year, I had the pleasure of working with the amazing AB 540 students (“The Invisibles,” by Douglas McGray, April 23). A colleague in the financial aid office would find scholarships that didn’t ask for immigration status, and I would assist the students in writing essays--anything to help keep them at Cal.

The tenacity of the students to succeed and stay in school was inspiring, as they dealt not only with immigration and financial issues, but family concerns, illnesses, limited resources and more. But even with all these challenges, they were some of the best students academically. I know many of them are not sure what life will be like after graduation, but one thing I do know: They will eventually contribute to our society and “pay back” the opportunity that was afforded them.

Angelita Figueroa Salas

Academic counselor

UC Irvine

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McGray’s article was exceptional and could not have come at a better time. Reading about the struggles and uncertainties these students face was inspiring. Stories like these are a great example of why we should think twice about immigration reform. I applaud those students for moving forward in the face of adversity and for showing us that education is something we shouldn’t take for granted.

Karina Arias

Downey

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I strongly believe that children must not be punished for having illegal immigrant parents. Most of them have been here for many years--educated and assimilated in the American life. I hope the reformed immigration bill will include the DREAM Act so that these children can be naturalized and shed off their label as “foreigners.”

Edmund Melig Industan

Pasadena

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Two years ago as a high school principal, I rallied friends and family to put up nearly $18,000 in scholarships for undocumented students. Unfortunately, this money only helped get these students started, and since the path to legal status isn’t available, many of them have dropped their dreams and joined the underground culture.

We can’t turn our backs on students who meet every criteria and in every way are truly American except that they’re missing a piece of paper.

Mara Simmons

Los Angeles

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Although McGray’s article pulls on our heartstrings, it leaves me wondering: Why can’t the students who were born abroad return to their home nations after graduation from UCLA and improve the countries they came from? You would think that rather than do volunteer work here or menial labor, it would be more desirable to go home and be all they can be. If they did that, and made their homelands better places to live, then less of their countrymen would come here and get stuck in the quagmire the students find themselves in.

Judy Elmayan

Upland