Navigating Intersectional Failures: The Role of College Interventionists in Undocumented Student Support

Abstract

This study examines how higher education professionals navigate intersectional failures in institutional, state, and federal support as advocates for undocumented students. Semi-structured interviews with these professionals reveal that they rely on college interventionists to fill the gaps in undocumented student support on their college campuses. Recommendations for scholarship and practitioners include additional interventions for addressing the precarity faced by undocumented students and the personnel who serve them in higher education.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Using Tight's definition of case study we implemented a small-sample design to conduct in-depth research on undocumented student support in higher education in Nevada.

² The CARES Act allotted $2.2 trillion in economic aid to citizens impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately $14 billion of that sum was allocated to the Office of Postsecondary Education as the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) for eligible college students. Given that the CARES Act uses federal funding, undocumented students are ineligible for any HEERF funds.

³ The DACA program grants certain legal protections and privileges to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children. The program does not grant official legal status or a pathway to citizenship.

⁴ We use terms such as peers, college peers, campus peers, etc as synonyms throughout the manuscript.

⁵ The eight public institutions of the Nevada System of Higher Education are: College of Southern Nevada; Desert Research Institute; Great Basin College; Nevada State College; Truckee Meadows Community College; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of Nevada, Reno; and Western Nevada College. The study includes participants from five of these institutions.

Additional information

Funding

This article was funded by the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (University of Nevada, Reno) through grant P217A220011.