As a high school student growing up near Los Angeles, Felecia Russell got good grades and was encouraged to go to college.
But when it came time to apply to campus and do financial aid paperwork, Russell asked his mom for her Social Security number.
“My mom said, ‘Yeah, you don’t have any,’” she remembers.
Because Russell did not have permanent legal status in the United States, he did not have a Social Security number. She was “undocumented.” She moved to the United States from Jamaica when she was 12 years old. But until that moment, she didn't fully understand as she searched for more details about how her own immigration status could thwart her dreams.
“All I saw online was ‘illegal, illegal, illegal,’” she remembers. And everything online seemed to be telling her, “That means you can't go to college.”
On this week's EdSurge podcast, we share Russell's story of her struggle to earn a college degree and how she became an advocate for other undocumented students. (She earned her Ph.D. and is currently an adjunct professor at California Lutheran University.)
Her biggest message is that even when colleges and universities work to help students who lack permanent legal status, they often do not pay attention to undocumented black students. Because most of the services in this space are designed for Latino students.
“Some of that makes sense, because the Latino population is two-thirds of the undocumented population, so it makes sense that everything is focused on their experiences,” she says.
But 6% of America's undocumented population is black, she says, and a significant portion of the 408,000 undocumented students in college are black. As of 2023, 46% of undocumented students in college were Hispanic, 27% were Asian, and 27% were Asian, according to data from the Higher Education Immigration Portal of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, which Russell oversees. 14% were black and 10% were white. Some people identify as black and Latino and generally describe themselves as Afro-Latino.
“It’s very dangerous because now we’re pushing these people back into the shadows,” says Russell, who became a DACA recipient but often felt unwelcome in support groups for undocumented students when she was a student. “Now they have no place to belong.”
Russell shares her story in a new book, “Amplifying the Voices of Undocumented Black Students in Higher Education,” published this month.
The book also includes in-depth research on the topic based on extensive interviews with 15 undocumented black college students. And she offers recommendations to school and college leaders on how to better support all students facing immigration challenges.
Hear the full story in this week's episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or use the player on this page.