Where is Claudia Rueda?
For more than two weeks last month, she was not in her classroom at Cal State Los Angeles. She was not at the UCLA Labor Center, where she has been awarded a prestigious summer fellowship. And she was not volunteering, as per usual, with on-campus community groups like the Immigrant Youth Coalition.
Instead, this promising student, this young woman who has filled her heart with love for her community, sat inside Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, while her teachers and classmates protested outside.
Tell me. What good does is it do for our country to deny Claudia the opportunity to learn? Are we safer when she’s removed from the classroom? Should we sleep better at night because her voice is silenced?
Claudia is 22, and she has lived in this country since the age of 4. She qualifies for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and would have the protection from deportation that it offers, except that she couldn’t afford the application. Her mother’s wages from her bakery job barely cover Claudia’s college tuition.
(Side note: It was not that long ago that tuition to the California State University was free. Those were years when the state invested in the future of its students because leaders saw the public good in providing a higher education to everybody who wanted it. It is no coincidence, as my sisters in the California Faculty Association have pointed out, that state funding has declined and tuition has been raised, as the student population has grown more diverse.)
Today, I am struck by the timing of Claudia’s detention. This week marks the 35th anniversary of Plyler vs. Doe, the Where is Claudia Rueda? - Lily's Blackboard: