Growing up, freshman journalism major Gloria Chuma feared for the security of her family every time she got into the car with her parents. Being undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania, Chuma’s parents were not able to receive an official driver’s license. If her parents were pulled over, they could risk arrest and deportation from the United States.
“It wasn’t that I feared the police officer himself. I feared what he could do,” writes Chuma in her Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, “Undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania should have driver’s licenses.”
Chuma originally wrote the piece as an assignment for Media and American Politics, offered through the Klein College of Media and Communication Global Opportunities (GO) program at Temple University. The class is taught every four years by Professor of Journalism David Mindich and includes a trip to the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries to gain hands-on reporting skills.
One of the assignments for the class is writing an op-ed and submitting it to an actual publication. Professor Mindich believes that this requirement, outside of just submitting an op-ed for a grade, pushes the writer to create a more successful piece.
“When you have an actual audience, you try to reach people that you don’t know, and one of the requirements was to try to convince reasonable people of all political persuasions,” explained Mindich.
Chuma knew that she wanted to write her op-ed on issues facing undocumented immigrants. She decided on the accessibility of driver’s licenses due to her experiences growing up.
“It’s something that has affected my family for my whole life, so I wanted to talk about it,” said Chuma.
Further inspiration for this article came from the introduction of House Bill 769 on March 30th, 2023, by Pennsylvania House Democrats. The passage of this bill would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses in the state. However, it has since been referred to the House Transportation Committee, where its status remains stagnant. Chuma said that the lack of urgency in passing this bill motivated her to focus the topic of her op-ed on undocumented immigrants obtaining driver’s licenses.
Though part of the assignment was for students to submit their op-ed to a publication, it is rare that students are published, especially for freshmen like Chuma. However, as a testament to her skill and hard work, Chuma was the only student in Media and American Politics this year to be published.
“I’m super impressed that any student, particularly a first-year one, would do all of this original reporting, throwing her own history into it, and writing so well it gets published,” Mindich said. “It’s a real thrill for me to see my students succeed like this.”
For Chuma, it is a proud moment for herself to be published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Though she was born in the United States, she went to English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for most of her childhood.
“I wasn’t the best at English or writing, so this piece felt like a way to reflect back on that,” she said. “To go from that, to having my writing be published in an American newspaper, it was a proud moment for me.”
Mindich believes that Chuma’s op-ed is an important piece, in terms of spreading information and sparking change.
“I never thought about what it would feel like to be a child in the car of undocumented immigrants, I never thought about the fact that Pennsylvania doesn’t allow undocumented people to drive,” Mindich commented. “The Philadelphia Inquirer is read by Pennsylvania lawmakers, and this potentially could have an effect on what happens with [House Bill 769].”
The publication of her op-ed led to the organization Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania to reach out to Chuma to gain her insight and incorporate her into their activism.
Throughout the rest of her time at Temple, she wants to continue to write about issues that affect undocumented immigrants. Chuma plans to go to law school after graduation and to become an immigration attorney and help serve her community.