Life was never easy for Pablo Ortiz, 29. Five years ago he left Michoacan, Mexico and undertook a long and perilous journey into the United States to seek a better life. However, as an undocumented immigrant, opportunities always seemed beyond his reach. After working a menial job as a dishwasher for a restaurant in Rohnert Park, he realized that education is the way to that better life. So he enrolled at SRJC, despite his undocumented status.

Undocumented immigrants studying in the United States have become an invisible part of the country’s educational system. Even with their different experiences, common goals and challenges unite them: they all seek opportunities, but are unable to access them because of their undocumented status.

SRJC’s instructors and faculty are prepared to do their jobs and educate students in their classrooms, regardless of their legal status.

For many immigrants like Ortiz, taking English as a Second Language classes is the first step to a higher education. Greg Allen, an instructor from the ESL department, describes his students as eager to learn and motivated. “They’re persistent and have a goal, so overall they’re excellent students to have in the classroom,” he said.

Ronald Balsamo, another ESL instructor, said challenges unique to undocumented immigrants make them more motivated in their studies. “Those students do tend to work harder, be more diligent and be more goal-oriented because they want to achieve and have a tremendous desire for that,” Balsamo said. “I think that’s one of the things that makes America great. You have all of these immigrants who come here and they really work hard because they want to make something of their lives and they see the United States as a land of opportunity.”

EOPS outreach specialist Rafael Vasquez, citing Anne Driscoll’s research from 2007, says California will have more jobs requiring at least a two-year college degree than it has qualified workers by 2020.

“For the 8th largest economy in the world, to not have enough workers means that the economy itself will suffer,” Vasquez said. “When you don’t have enough workers to do the work then you are not producing enough, and at the same time you don’t have enough workers to pay the taxes.”

Vasquez said that by preventing undocumented students from accessing higher education and professional careers, the students are limited to menial jobs and labor, unnecessarily perpetuating an under class.

Anthropology instructor Kent Wisniewski adds that such a scenario ultimately harms U.S. society. “If we don’t give them that opportunity then where are they going to go and what are their choices?” Wisniewski said. “Their choices are not to get an education and to have to work low-paying jobs and maybe turn to crime. If we’re worried about the criminality, then we’re almost condemning these people to at least a life of lower status.”

Martin Bennett, a history instructor from the social sciences department, warns that the nation’s economic standing is at stake.

“We need a skilled workforce to be competitive in the global economy,” Bennett said. “They [students] are the future workers of the nation. They’re being denied their rights, but ultimately it will affect all of us if we don’t have a skilled workforce.”

Undocumented students face another obstacle in their quest for a better future: a public that remains resistant to allowing them a path to citizenship and a political climate that has become hostile towards immigrants.

Bennett said anti-immigrant sentiment has always been present throughout American history, especially during periods of economic hardship.”It can help get you votes if you blame the economic problems on immigrants,” Bennett said.

According to Vasquez, using immigrants as scapegoats is the reason why the general public refuses to acknowledge research and economic data supporting the integration of undocumented immigrants in the university system and professional workforce.

“A lot of it is ignorance and misinformation that has been put out there,” Vasquez said. “What is troublesome for me is that some people are making decisions based on what outside sources, manipulated by big money, are telling them to think.” He said news networks like FOX News perpetuate the fear of immigrants.

Wisniewski said it boils down to occasional upsurges of nationalism during economic recessions. “It’s this nationalistic feeling, ‘we are members of this nation, and we don’t want to share that membership’ or by allowing more immigrants to come, it’s going to ruin our economic system,” Wisniewski said. “It’s just not a good argument and this is not what’s happening. But I think people are attracted to that argument because it’s old nationalism.”

The fear of immigrants is present in the nation’s capital, Vasquez said. “When some of my students and community members were calling Washington for the DREAM Act to pass, the report that we got was that for every phone call that people were making asking or demanding that the DREAM Act pass, there were about 10 phone calls against it.”

For Bennett, giving undocumented students the opportunity to pursue a higher education is a matter of social justice. “If we have these people that are making such an economic contribution and are often doing jobs that nobody else would do, what rights should they have?” Bennett said. “I think the right of their [undocumented immigrants] children to go to college here is important. It acknowledges the contributions that they have made and I think it’s just essential that the contribution be honored.”

The U.S. needs to include all students in its society and its workforce, regardless of their legal status, Wisniewski said.

“This is a resource that we should be welcoming in our country and we should be tapping all the potential in the youth that’s here,” Wisniewski said. “It’s our own home-grown immigrants, whether they are legal or not, who are trying to get a leg up to be better Americans and to participate better in the American system.” We need routes for people to become legal citizens and fully participate in our economy, Wisniewski said.

“It seems like you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face to not educate those people because then they’re not going to be able to be as successful as they could otherwise and may end up costing society more in the long run in terms of having to depend on social services,” Allen said, addressing the usual concerns of undocumented immigrants in the welfare system.

“Immigrants have made this country what it is,” Balsamo said, explaining immigrants’ continued role in the country. “There’s no question that if you look at the history of the United States that immigrants have brought so much to this country.”

Despite the fact that the DREAM Act was voted down in the Senate, Vasquez remains optimistic about the prospects of undocumented students wanting a path to legalization because of increasing political and social support for the DREAM Act.

“This year it’s becoming a more diverse group of people who are standing up and going to marches and saying, ‘this needs to happen,'” Vasquez said. “I always tell people I never lose hope until the last vote is counted.”