A couple weeks ago I worked on a story for the Chronicle of Higher Education that brought national attention for the small Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. In late December, due to a complaint from an employee to the Board of Trustees that the school wasn’t properly vetting its employees’ immigration statuses, 17 workers who could not prove their citizenship were fired. One was Christian Torres, a 25-year-old kitchen worker who had been employed by the college for several years. Torres – who is pictured in the room he rents in a house occupied by two other families – and 15 fellow kitchen workers were among the 17 fired. The sudden termination of the employees resulted in immediate protests by both students and employees of the liberal college that prides itself on promoting Latino culture and continues to be a topic of debate. Meanwhile, those affected, like Christian, are moving on and trying to find new work, which he was hoping to land soon so he didn’t have to sell his car. Without getting into the debate of who’s wrong and who’s right, the situation is understandably a difficult one in areas such as this, which are primarily Latino.
You can read more about it in the Chronicle and in the New York Times. The Chronicle also posted a slideshow of images that include photos from the protests.