Background: Economic opportunity, educational attainment and health are highly interrelated.  For a subset of undocumented youth, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), presents limited opportunities (i.e. protection from deportation, work permit, driver’s license) for advancement. However, DACA recipients in some states such as North Carolina (NC) do not receive in-state residency for college tuition, a crucial omission that limits educational advancement, economic opportunities and, ultimately, long-term health. Methods: A community-based youth advocacy organization in partnership with academic researchers used the community-based participatory research method of Photovoice to explore the question “How does being an undocumented Latino/a affect my aspirations for higher education?” Five youth explored this question by taking photos and engaging in structured conversations using the SHOWED dialogue process. A youth community partner and two academics conducted an extensive secondary qualitative analysis. Results: Our findings highlight the day-to-day challenges faced by DACA recipient youth in NC. Youth describe feeling “locked out” of higher education because their legal status makes college unaffordable, thus limiting their lifelong employment opportunities to low-paying jobs. Latino/a youth advocate for organizing to make their voices heard to bring about policy changes. This roundtable will discuss youth-generated solutions that emerged from our photovoice study and subsequent advocacy efforts of Latino youth for improving policies surrounding immigration reform to increase educational and economic opportunities.

Conclusions: The voices of structurally marginalized youth highlight our need to build coalitions to advocate for youths’ rights and opportunities. Comprehensive immigration policy is imperative for the health and prosperity of our society.