By Catherine Hofacker
From Compass
Ohio University is not only honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is also celebrating his legacy of advocacy for social justice. On Jan. 19, the Ohio University Center for Law, Justice and Culture hosted the Immigration, Refugees, and American Policy Panel Discussion in Porter Hall.
“We here on the panel feel that it’s critically important to initiate, support and sustain broad campus and community conservations,” said Dr. Haley Duschinski, the director of the Center for Law, Justice and Culture. “We coordinated the panel in conjunction with Ohio University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Week activities and events to highlight his life and legacy, especially regarding his important themes of civil liberties and civil rights.”
The panel was made up of Columbus immigration activist Ruben Castillo Herrera, undocumented college student Jessica Camacho and Classics and World Religions Associate Professor Loren Lybarger. The panel was moderated by Alicia Chavira-Prado, special assistant to the vice provost for diversity and inclusion.
Topics included the obstacles both undocumented immigrants and Syrian refugees face in this country, the attitude toward both these groups and the United States’ history in sustaining these issues.
“As Americans, we don’t understand our history very well,” Herrera said. “So we need to go back and embrace that, understand that and change it.”
Herrera is a lifelong fighter for immigration reform, using his childhood experiences as a migrant worker to guide his work. In 2012, he and other young dreamers—young undocumented immigrants—created the Central Ohio Worker Center to organize and educate unrepresented communities, such as immigrants, about their rights.
“The best way to create change is to have the movement led by those who it is about,” Herrera said.
Along the way, Herrera met Jessica Camacho, whose struggle to obtain a college education as an undocumented immigrant is a problem that many people face but few discuss.
“You don’t learn about undocumented students,” Camacho said. “For me, public speaking was so hard because anything I say can lead back to my parents, lead back to my family, lead back to my friends.”
Camacho worked hard to get into college because she wanted to improve her family’s lives. She was accepted to multiple universities, but without a Social Security number, Camacho was ineligible for federal and state financial aid and scholarships. Although the Obama Administration passed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2013, which gave Social Security numbers to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, obstacles still existed at the state level.
Many universities register Deferred Action students as international students, which not only increases tuition to three times the normal amount, but also excludes them from both federal aid and international scholarships.
After taking classes for a year at Columbus State University, Camacho is in the process of transferring to Ohio State University, where she plans to study social work.
“My focus in on educating my community to protect them from what’s going on in our country,” Camacho said.
Loren Lybarger, an associate professor of Classics and World Religions, spoke about the political rhetoric of “resentment and anger” surrounding both undocumented immigrants and Syrian refugees, saying presidential candidate Donald Trump is reinforcing stereotypes that have previously existed.
“The answer to this question lies in part in the traditions of Orientalism that prepared Europeans and Americans to think of Arabs as threats, but also reflects the legacy of September 11 and the long war on terror that George W. Bush and his administration began,” Lybarger said.
The panel included a Q&A portion that centered on how to support and promote discussion about these movements.
Herrera said understanding must come before advocacy.
“If you don’t understand how it affects you personally, then you should not be fighting for the collective yet,” Herrera said.
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