After Kevin Lujan Lee came out to his parents, he found another family in Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS), an undocumented student advocacy and support group at the University of California at Los Angeles. After joining the organization to support his undocumented partner at the time, he fell in love with the group and community around it, and became involved in organizing alongside undocumented youth. When Lee found himself struggling to make ends meet upon graduation, it was his then-partner’s parents who took him in and cared for him despite their limited means and the constant threat of deportation.
“I would be nothing if it weren’t for IDEAS, if it weren’t for undocumented people sheltering me and giving me food,” Lee says. “This was the spirit that the group embodied. People who were more than willing to just fork out what they didn’t have.”
The third-year PhD candidate credits the family and mission of IDEAS for every subsequent step...
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