“Living Undocumented: Stories Across Difference” Panel

Sponsored by The Alliance at UNC, UndocuCarolina presents: “Living Undocumented: Stories Across Difference” a virtual panel on diversity and citizenship on February 16th at 6pm EST.

REGISTER HERE

Storytellers from various ethnoracial backgrounds will discuss their community’s and their own relationship to undocumentation. We will examine how issues pertaining to undocumentation are not single-group concerns, rather, they crosscut all communities in ways that are both shared and distinct.

The United States is home to at least 3.9 million undocumented young people. Statistically, only between 1 and 3% of these will ever graduate from college (compared to a college graduation rate of 38% for US citizens). With personal and/or family ties to places across the globe, undocumented young people are Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Asian American, African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, and European. They are also profoundly American, and their life chances are dramatically diminished by their exclusion from opportunities of higher education. 

Of the fortunate few undocumented young people who do enter college, national statistics show they are Latinx (48%), AAPI (24%), Black (13%), White (13%), and some other race (2%) (2019 American Community Survey). While these categories are inherently flawed (erasing Indigeneity, conflating ethnic and racial categories, and failing to account for multi-raciality) they are helpful in showing that undocumentation in higher ed is an issue that crosscuts our communities, and one that requires collaborative solutions.

Speakers 

Talitha Moniz McMillion is a LatIndigenous storyteller and dedicated activist. Before attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Talitha obtained an Associate of Arts and was working with several organizations over the course of 4 years, including Greenpeace, Charlotte Animal Activists, and an underground migrant assistance coalition for Latin American refugees. In 2019, they were a part of a political delegation to Colombia organized by AfroResistance to build international, working-class solidarity with Afro and Indigenous Colombians. Having majored in Dramatic Art and Creative Writing and minored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Talitha is passionate about continuing to explore the intersectionality of these subjects and how, together, they can cultivate liberation and justice. In addition to being an Assistant Correspondent for PETA, Talitha is currently continuing to expand on their research and documentation of how the animal agriculture industry harms Latin American lands, people, animals, and cultures. Read more about Talitha’s work at talithamonizmcmillion.com (https://www.talithamonizmcmillion.com/).

Rachel Park immigrated from South Korea to the U.S. as a child. She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina and went to UNC-Chapel Hill, where she worked with the One State One Rate Campaign and UndocuCarolina. After graduating in 2018, Rachel worked for three years as a paralegal at an immigration office. She started law school at George Mason Law in 2021 and is currently a second year student. This past fall, Rachel interned on Capitol Hill at the House Judiciary Committee. Rachel hopes to have an active pro bono practice in immigration law in the future.

Rahi Hasan (they/them) is a formerly undocumented queer Muslim Bangladeshi dancer, filmmaker, and impact strategist challenging power on all fronts to create space for healing and radical imagination. Rahi was a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow (https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/articles/introducing-2017-2018-lewis-hine-documentary-fellows) in 2017,  Firelight Media Impact Producer fellow (https://www.firelightmedia.tv/articles/firelight-launches-new-fellowship-for-diverse-impact-producers) in 2018 and recipient of the 2021 Doc NYC New Leaders award (https://www.docnyc.net/new-leaders-2021/). In 2022, Rahi was awarded artist grants from the North Carolina Arts Council and Center for Asian American Media. Rahi is the founder and Executive Director of MMJ Artist Residency program at Shopnotori, providing free, safe, and nurturing space for creatives that are living in unsafe environments.They also co-founded Undocumented Filmmakers Collective (https://linktr.ee/undocufilmmakers) and Art Asylum (https://durhammentalhealth.wordpress.com/about/) (A Durham based Art Collective centering mental wellness). Additionally, Rahi has been a thought leader, moderator, panelist, film screener, grant reviewer and judge for awards in the Documentary field for the following organizations and more: Sundance Film Festival, Full Frame Film Festival, Double Exposure Film Festival, Hartley Media Impact Initiative at Auburn Seminary, International Documentary Association, and New Orleans Film Society. Rahi is currently working on their first feature length documentary film Dhupshikha. https://linktr.ee/mmjdocumentaries (https://linktr.ee/mmjdocumentaries)

Denea Joseph is an undocumented Black DACA recipient and national immigrant rights activist. She immigrated to the United States at the age of seven years old from Belize, Central America. Denea is a regularly sought-after media commentator on immigration issues, advocating for the representation of UndocuBlack immigrants within the mainstream immigrant narrative. Denea has been serving as the California Ambassador for the United State of Women (USOW), board Member for the Center for Law and Social Policy and works as an Entrepreneurship Support Specialist Lead for Immigrants Rising.

Laura Villa Torres, PhD, MSPH is an Assisstant Professor in the Public Health Leadership Program at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her public health practice and research focus is on migration and health, particularly the social determinants of health of migrants with precarious documentation status and work conditions. Dr. Villa Torres methodological strengths are qualitative research and community-based participatory methods.