Marisol Clark-Ibáñez - Unauthorized: Portraits of Latino Immigrants

We are sociology professors at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM), which is a medium-sized, teaching-oriented, public state university. The joy of working at a CSU campus is the expectation that teaching and research inform each other. We are able to teach what we research and our students inspire what we study. We have both enjoyed supervising dozens of masters theses on issues related to inequality and the Latinx or immigrant communities of San Diego. We work with students and community members who must navigate their immigration status while working, going to school, being activists, and also just going about their daily lives.

Dr. Marisol Clark-Ibez is a Peruvian-Irish-American immigrant Latina who is proud to work alongside of and learn from her students and colleagues. She inter-weaves immigration themes across her courses in childrens rights, education, and methods. She has been active on campus, in the community, and with educators in the region related to supporting undocumented students and their families. Dr. Clark-Ibez served as lead author for a monograph called Undocumented Latino Youth: Navigating Their Worlds (2015), training and writing with a team of undergraduates and community members to investigate the educational pipeline for Latinx undocumented students. She is the faculty director for the National Latino Research Center at CSUSM where, in partnership with research director Dr. Arcela Nuez-Alvarez, she supports projects that include civic engagement, immigration, youth, and post-incarceration. With Carolina Valdivia, Dr. Clark-Ibez co-directs UndocuResearch ProjectA Study by, for, and with Undocumented Students, which focuses on the postelection of Trump experiences of undocumented high school students and teachers who work with them. She is also on the board of directors for UURISE, Unitarian Universalist Refugee and Immigration Services and Education, a nonprofit legal center that focuses on immigration. She is grateful for the long friendship and collaborations with Dr. Swan, which began with coauthoring a book on teaching sociology using film, and now more recently they are working together on a research project about immigration courts and have coauthored an article on the impact of DACA.

In addition to these amazing collaborators, Dr. Clark-Ibez is grateful to her immediate family members who have supported her through this project. She grew up with Mercedes Ibez as a fierce poet mother whose immigrant journey and successes in a new country formed in her daughters solid roots of resistance and resiliency. Her sister Giselle Clark-Ibez and her partner Will Warren (parents to beautiful Nina Mercedes and Lucia Karina) are champions of human rights, radically political, and just fun to be around. Bill Clark, her dad, possesses pragmatism and a great sense of humor, which helped so much during hectic workweeks; he also hosted sleepovers with grandkids while she attended long night meetings. Finally, partner Dr. Luke Lara helped with this project at every levelediting, sounding board, fun breaks, date nights, and community work. Pablo Vicente and Cecilia Catalina are their children and entice Marisol into a sacred, blessed balance away from work that includes day trips, beach, art, song, and hanging out.

Dr. Richelle Swan primarily teaches undergraduate and graduate classes related to the sociology of law, community internships, and social justice. She serves as the CSUSM faculty liaison to JusticeCorps and enjoys supporting students as they develop a critical consciousness about justice issues both inside and outside of the classroom. Past scholarship that informs her contributions to this book includes examinations of civil gang injunctions social control of communities of color; analyses of media, popular culture, and social constructions of crime, law, and targeted populations; and work on social movements and resistance in the context of Hurricane Katrina. She and her writing partner for this book have recently published an article examining the legal consciousness of undocumented students before and after the enactment of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and are continuing their examination of federal immigration courts in Southern California. She has happily worked with and learned from many graduate and undergraduate students who are pursuing community work and scholarship related to the impact of immigration on their lives.

As a person who can trace her birth familys immigrant roots back many generations to several countries in western and southern Europe (thanks to her mothers detailed genealogical research), Dr. Swan has deeply appreciated learning about the relatively recent immigrant experiences of her extended family and friends who have roots in a variety of countries, such as Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, and Peru. She gives special thanks to her partner, Chendo, for his loving and supportive presence throughout the years of writing this book, and for sharing his thoughts and feelings about his immigration experiences indelible impact upon his life. She thanks Sara, Elisa, Carmela, and Jaime for serving as remarkable examples of resilient people who encountered daunting challenges on their path to establishing a life here in the United States. She also thanks Marisol for being such a generous colleague, collaborator, and friend, and her mother, Mercedes, for her longstanding encouragement and kindness. In addition, she is grateful to her dear friends, Maricela, Seba, Kim, Theresa, and Sonia, for the in-depth conversations related to many of the topics considered in this book over the years. Oftentimes these conversations took place in happy times accompanied by music, food, and celebration, and sometimes they were in more serious contexts with tears and difficult memories, yet, all have been equally appreciated. She also thanks her parents, Sharon and Rick, as well as Chandon, Jasmin, Gavin, and Olivia for all the fun breaks and family time that they have provided on weekends during this process. And last, but not least, she thanks Alicia, Brad, Bryce, and Avary for the laughter, love, and support they always send her way.

Our work and personal lives are intertwined with immigration and social justice. We live in a region where immigration is happening. Folks are coming and going through the border to visit family or the doctor. Youth are going to school and adults to work. We celebrate the milestones and grieve losses. Through all this, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are a strong presence. We are flanked on either side of our region by active checkpoints on the two major freeways. Local law enforcement sets up checkpoints that allegedly check for alcohol but are far away from social venues and deep in our Latinx communities. We support the work of grassroots organizations, such as Alianza Comunitara (Community Alliance), which trains team members to be human rights observers and reports on verified checkpoints to their thousands of text message subscribers.

As professors, we teach students of diverse backgrounds and political ideologies. Both of us are committed to respectful, nourishing pedagogies that foster student growth. In class, we encourage students to consider multiple perspectives. We assign reflective writing assignments and facilitate active discussions. Most importantly, we stress the use of scholarly research, documentary film, and community voices to best understand the issues we grapple with in all of our classes.

We draw on our approach into this book for our singular mission: honoring and sharing the contemporary experiences of undocumented Latinx immigrants in the United States. Therefore, readers should not look to this book for a balanced perspective on undocumented immigration. We are fiercely progressive in our outlook on undocumented immigration. As full professors, talented teachers, and seasoned scholars, we are excited to share the evidence for a humanistic approach to understanding undocumented immigration.