Why I should get in-state tuition as an undocumented student
New Jersey recently became the latest state to join a movement granting equal tuition for undocumented students. But not all do. East Los Angeles College student Miguel Molina shares how the different rules in different states have separated him from his family.
I am told I crossed the border to the United States when I was 2 years old, sitting in the back of a car. But my earliest memories are of South Los Angeles — of my parents staying up until midnight and then waking up every weekday and on Saturdays at 3 a.m. to check on the tamales and boil water mixed with maizena, blocks of chocolate and cinnamon for champurado, a traditional Mexican corn-based drink. My dad would load his yellow vendor tricycle with a huge oya, or pot, of tamales, utensils, and the freshly made champurado. My mom would fill a grocery cart with the prepared foods, which she would push as she walked my sister and me to elementary school.
Miguel Molina
That changed the fall of my senior year in high school. My parents told me they were moving because they feared for their lives. They had reported to the police that a gang member was extorting money from them. When the gang member found out, he threatened to kill them. My parents wanted me to move with them, but I chose to stay to finish high school because I believed there were more opportunities for me in California