Simai Kang // Campus Beat Reporter
Undocumented Student Services (USS) is a UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) organization for all students and allies that provides various programs, services, and resources for students from undocumented, mixed-status, and refugee backgrounds.
“The programs that we have are intended to bridge the gap between what our undocumented students are not able to access on campus,” stated USS Director Melissa Candell Vilacreses in an interview with The Bottom Line (TBL).
USS has an internship scholarship program that’s focused on student team rights and creating professional opportunities for undocumented students on campus. Additionally, the service also provides a mentorship program to allow upperclassmen to be able to work directly with new students from the perspective of being undocumented.
“Knowing that for our students that are undocumented, they’re navigating this campus without social security and with limited financial resources,” said Vilacreses. “So that’s a really wonderful program.”
USS also has its Monarch Opportunity Scholarship, which focuses on creating opportunities for students to intern in various departments. When departments are in need of additional student staff support, one of the students from USS may be integrated in their team, which creates an opportunity for students without work authorization to be able to intern and strengthen their resumes through professional growth.
Vilacreses said, “Without some of these programs, our students wouldn’t have access to a lot of these resources, so our programs are focused on student development, basic needs, general programming, and things of that nature.”
As a director of USS, Vilacreses leads many programs and works very closely with a lot of campus partners to address the needs of students.
“One example is that we work very closely with Basic Needs, so we have different programs that are focused on food security for undocumented students. My main goal is to make sure that I’m a voice for the needs of our students,” Vilacreses told TBL.
The USS team also collaborates with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, a team of immigration attorneys that works across UC campuses.
“We have our UCSB Staff Attorney, her name is Yoxira Espinoza,” said Vilacreses. “She can provide her services to any UCSB student, undocumented or not, who has a question about immigration law.”
Staff Attorney Espinoza can also serve students’ immediate family members, such as parents, partners, or children, depending on what their needs are.
“She can also support UCSB staff members if they have a need for [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA)] renewals or things in that nature,” said Vilacreses.
Without work authorization, students may face limited access to job opportunities compared to many of their peers post-grad. USS works with Career Services to be able to create programs to combat this, such as UndocuSuccess to help them navigate life after college.
Vilacreses shared, “We also have a separate entrepreneurship program that focuses on teaching immigrants how to create their own businesses because creating a business is not something that requires a social security number. It’s something that anyone can do if they have an entrepreneurial idea.”
Not only did USS collaborate with UndocuProfessionals, an off-campus organization, but they also worked with Immigrants Rising to be able to bring expertise on how immigrants build their entrepreneurship ideas.
“It’s not just about providing the information, it’s about meeting them in a way that’s more human, in a way that’s more mindful to understand the fact that it’s very emotional. We work very closely to build off of that,” Vilacreses added.
USS has also joined forces with student leaders within Associated Students to focus on creating physical spaces where students feel comfortable voicing their needs.
Alongside the Dream Scholars Resource Team, USS focuses on advocating for students and supporting their professional development.
“It takes a lot of courage and safety for students to feel like they can share that they’re undocumented,” said Vilacreses. “There’s a lot of emotional labor that we do when we support our students. They face additional challenges that are not always understood. We all know what it means to not know about AB 540 and then find out about it, what it means to have financial aid and reimbursements.”
“It’s a job that requires a lot of heart, being able to understand people from a human perspective, and collaborating with different people,” Vilacreses concluded. “I feel a combination of knowing that it’s a huge blessing and a huge privilege to be able to hold this role.”