Higher Education Professionals Navigating Anti-Immigration Policy for Undocumented Students

Abstract

Higher education professionals are critical to undocumented students’ educational success as their access to higher education is heavily dependent on being able to interpret and navigate policies. This study presents an analysis of policies that impact higher education access for undocumented students coupled with a qualitative case study that examines how anti-immigration policy affects the experiences of higher education professionals who worked directly with undocumented students in the state of Indiana. The authors help readers understand the experiences and challenges facing these “pathfinders” as they attempt to navigate the mazes of federal, state, and institutional policy to help their undocumented students.

Examining the Undocumented College Student Policy Implementation Environment Through a Contextual Interaction Theory Lens

“…Prior research exploring institutional agents’ implementation of higher education policies affecting undocumented students has largely focused on actor-level characteristics and sensemaking (Castrellón, 2018; Macías, 2018; Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019; Nienhusser, 2014, 2018a; Nienhusser & Espino, 2017; Vigil, 2018). However, actor-level elements alone fail to address the complexities of how contexts shape implementation actions while simultaneously influencing how actor interactions also affect how policies are executed.…”

“…Amid these realities, some states have taken policy action to facilitate undocumented students’ access to higher education by affording them ISRT and/or state aid eligibility (Nienhusser, 2018b). Accessible state policies shape institutional agents’ implementation, for example, by creating more opportunities for communication and coordination among higher education professionals as they work to support undocumented students’ access (Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019). Comparatively, institutional agents feel “handcuffed” (Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019, p. 13) by policies that hinder these students’ higher education access—unable to help students overcome policy-imposed barriers and powerless to change or influence the policy itself.…”

“…Accessible state policies shape institutional agents’ implementation, for example, by creating more opportunities for communication and coordination among higher education professionals as they work to support undocumented students’ access (Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019). Comparatively, institutional agents feel “handcuffed” (Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019, p. 13) by policies that hinder these students’ higher education access—unable to help students overcome policy-imposed barriers and powerless to change or influence the policy itself. Finally, other states have an absence of policy that results in unreliable interpretations, and thus, variable actions by policy actors (Flores & Oseguera, 2009).…”

“…However, undocumented youth continue to face numerous barriers to equitable access to postsecondary education (Gildersleeve & Vigil, 2015). One factor shaping these youths’ postsecondary education opportunities is the complex education policy implementation landscape (Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019; Nienhusser, 2018a, 2018b). An absence of federal policy affording undocumented students’ postsecondary education rights has contributed to a patchwork of state environments characterized by accessible, restrictionist, ambivalent, and incongruous public policies surrounding undocumented and DACAmented students’ in-state resident tuition (ISRT) and/or state aid eligibility (Nienhusser, 2018b).…”

“…Institutional agent (Stanton-Salazar, 2011) refers to higher education administrators (e.g., presidents, vice presidents, admissions staff, financial aid officers, and recruitment staff) who deploy their resources, networks, and positional authority in their work within educational institutions. How they make sense of the complicated environment in which they are situated shapes their policy implementation actions with consequences for undocumented students’ postsecondary education access and experiences (Castrellón, 2018; Macías, 2018; Martinez Hoy & Nguyen, 2019; Nienhusser, 2014, 2018a; Nienhusser & Espino, 2017; Vigil, 2018). While recent scholarship has begun to reveal the complex higher education undocumented policy implementation landscape, there is still much to be understood.…”