California university provides legal support to undocumented students in US

The California State University-Northridge (CSUN) in association with the Southwestern Law School has inaugurated a "Legal Support Clinic" to provide pro bono assistance to students on immigration issues.

"The university students are (great) ... but many come (here) under a lot of stress because they're undocumented," Julia Vazquez, an attorney and professor at the Southwestern Law School here told Efe news on Wednesday.

She added that despite having grown up in the US, after being brought here illegally by their parents, the majority of such students "are feeling the pressure of federal immigration policies".

The Legal Support Clinic will open its doors on Wednesday at the Oviatt Library at CSUN, where two days a week Vazquez will "confidentially and privately" advise undocumented students and others who need professional legal assistance with immigration matters.

"We're an educational project where CSUN will provide an office and (funds) for the legal support clinic," the professor said.

About 1,400 undocumented students are the potential beneficiaries of the programme, out of CSUN's student body of 40,000, according to calculations by the "Dream Centre", which assists beneficiaries of the Deferred Action (DACA) programme.

President Donald Trump's potential cancellation of the DACA programme would drastically change the lives of almost 800,000 people who benefit from it.

Former President Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2012 establishing the programme to provide undocumented immigrants brought here as young children with identity documents, drivers' licenses and work permits, among other things.