Paola Sanchez Valdez, a sophomore majoring in youth and social innovation at the University of Virginia (UVA), says she is one of the lucky ones. She and her family received permanent resident status in the United States years after migrating from Ecuador.
“Not only was it great news because we could travel back and see our family in Ecuador, but also because we no longer had to live in fear,” Sanchez Valdez said. “As undocumented immigrants, there’s a lot of fear involved.”
Permanent residency gave her and her family a legal pathway to citizenship and transformed her educational opportunities. She received permanent residency the same year she applied to college. Without it, the college application process—and the complicated calculus involved with paying for college—would have been much more difficult.
“My story is lucky, because a lot of undocumented students will never get a chance to have a pathway to citizenship, like I currently have,” she said.
