College is hard to reach for some immigrants

At least 30 states offer in-state tuition rates to undocumented students

By Abby Spegman
The Bulletin

BEND, Ore. (AP) - Brayan Gonzalez's story is one of hard work and determination. And very bad timing.

The 23-year-old from Madras graduated from Central Oregon Community College in June.

He plans to attend Portland State University this fall to earn a bachelor's degree.

He wants to double major in criminology and communication to go into law enforcement.

More than anything, he wants to help people.

But Gonzalez was born in Mexico and came to the country illegally when he was 4 years old with his mother and baby sister. He is not eligible for financial aid and he doesn't quality for in-state college tuition, meaning instead of about $6,700 he'll pay about $19,500.

He has scholarships and some savings from a summer job, but with classes starting at the end of the month, he is desperate to cover a $5,000 tuition gap. And that still leaves housing, transportation, books, food.

Gonzalez said he has gone over the numbers again and again.

"Sometimes I can't even sleep. That's why I know them so well. When I'm at work, I try not to think about them, just concentrate on my job, but they're in the back of my mind. Kind of like when you have a stone in your shoe? You put it aside, you don't want to address it for a little bit, but you know it's there," he said. "And the date is coming closer, and it's coming to the point where you have to address it. It's kind of like do or die, yeah."

Gonzalez's experience illustrates the challenges undocumented immigrants in Oregon face trying to go to college. While lawmakers have acted in recent years to help, there are still major hurdles and gaps students like Gonzalez can fall through.

Gonzalez was the first in his family to graduate from high school, in 2009 from Madras High School. He was also in student government and tutored younger students.

"I did all these things in high school because in the back of my mind I knew I was undocumented. My way of thinking was, if I become the best student I can be, they might overlook the fact that I don't have a Social Security number," he said.

His senior year, he was a finalist for a $20,000 scholarship, but he said he was passed over when the selection committee found out he was undocumented. The day he found out he skipped school, went home and cried. It was awarded to the runner-up; he said last he heard that girl was studying art in France.

Without scholarships, college was out of the question. After graduation, he got a job at McDonald's.

In June 2012, the federal government announced it would offer deportation protection for people like Gonzalez who came to the country under age 16 and met other requirements. Recipients are eligible for some college scholarships but can't receive federal aid.

Gonzalez applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status in 2012 and got it. He started at COCC in fall 2013 and received scholarships to cover the cost.

'THE WORST TIMING EVER'

Beginning in 2013, Oregon's tuition equity law allowed undocumented immigrants who earn a high school diploma or GED in Oregon and meet other requirements to pay in-state tuition at public universities. That's often a deep discount compared with the out-of-state tuition they had been paying. But students must start college within three years of graduating from high school to qualify. Since Gonzalez graduated in 2009, by the time the program started his three years were up.

This year, lawmakers approved a measure to remove the three-year requirement, but that doesn't go into effect until next school year.

"Essentially it boils down to: I have the worst timing ever," he said.

Gonzalez said he tried to get a private student loan, maybe $10,000, but was told that to apply he had to be a U.S. citizen, or get a co-signer who was a U.S. citizen.

"No one in my family, literally no one in my family, is a U.S. citizen. The closest is my aunt, who is a permanent resident, and she applied but she was denied because she wasn't a U.S. citizen."

So Gonzalez has turned to crowdfunding, trying to raise the $5,000 to cover tuition on the website gofundme.com. As of last week he had raised $495.

He already has a paid internship lined up working for a lawyer in Portland, and he thinks just maybe he can cover expenses other than tuition with money from that. Classes start Sept. 28, and the first tuition payment is due Oct. 6. He could afford to pay at least one month, maybe two, with the money he has saved.

"It feels like you're drowning, like it's not going to be possible to get so much money so fast," he said. "I'm a person who always likes to have a plan . I want to know where I'm going, what I'm doing."

'YOU HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL'

In the past five years or so, there have been moves to address the needs of undocumented students, said Whitney Swander, former assistant director with Latino Community Association in Bend. There's an economic rationale, since public schools invest so much in these students, only to turn them out with few options for higher education. According to the national organization United We Dream, at least 30 states offer in-state tuition rates to undocumented or DACA students; some also provide financial aid or scholarships.

Swander, who knows Gonzalez, said Oregon's tuition equity law looks good on paper but doesn't help some students.

"Brayan has worked really hard and clearly achieved a lot, and it's these administrative stumbling blocks that really are holding him back. Had he been born three years later, had his entire life timeline been three years later, I probably wouldn't know Brayan, because Brayan would have graduated from Madras High School and gone right to PSU, or to Stanford, or to Dartmouth, or to Tulane."

This session, Oregon lawmakers approved another measure to give undocumented immigrants access to state-funded college scholarships. Evelia Sandoval, the Latino student program coordinator at COCC, said the idea is not to give these students extra benefits, just the same opportunities that other Oregon high school graduates have. Even with in-state tuition, they still have to come up with thousands of dollars or enough in scholarships to cover the cost.

"Brayan is a great example, but I work with students like that every day," she said.

For now, Gonzalez is still trying to raise the money to afford tuition, and he's trying to stay positive. Back in June, he was the student speaker at COCC's commencement. His message: Don't let your circumstances determine who you are. His mom made sacrifices for him to be successful, he said. He wants to realize that dream for her and for himself.

"I don't want to say it's my ticket out of Madras or anything like that, but it's something I have to do," he said. "If you want to be successful, you have to go to school."

Published: Tue, Sep 15, 2015