Trump Has Assaulted DEI & Immigration. Here’s How Undocumented Students Are Coping

Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, immigrants have been scrambling to keep themselves safe amid emerging executive orders, nationwide raids, and assaults on birthright citizenship. Taking aim at diversity, Trump has also signed an executive order that directs federal funds to be withheld from schools with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Across the country, undocumented students seeking a higher education have been caught in the crosshairs of much of the political attacks.

At colleges and universities, DEI programs advocate for the rights of marginalized communities across race, class, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and ability, seeking to diversify campus populations as well as to make educational spaces more welcoming to people of all backgrounds. The Latine population has historically used DEI services, like student affinity groups, during their time in higher education, as cultural, racial, and class differences have meant that Latines are more likely to be first-gen students and have more difficulty navigating majority-white spaces. 

Across the country, DEI programs at universities have already started shutting down for fear of losing federal funding, including institutions with sizable Latine populations like Texas A&M University, Florida International University, and University of North Texas. According to licensed therapist Natalie Rosado, daily threats to immigrants and a lack of resources to work through the increased fears and challenges have made an already difficult education system inhospitable for undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students.

“They are experiencing anxiety, depression, and uncertainty at high levels due to fear of deportation and family separation,” Natalie Rosado, who has already seen an increase in severe psychological distress among undocumented students at her practice in Tampa during the Trump administration, told Refinery29 Somos. “The threat to their status and future is affecting their mental health and academic performance, and this stress does not stop at undocumented individuals, but extends to entire communities and families with mixed immigration statuses.”

The current political climate can have long-term effects for undocumented students who are currently trying to improve their future while the Trump administration increases hurdles for immigrants who want to continue to build a life in the United States. “It has unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety, which can disable undocumented students from concentrating, learning, and performing academically,” Rosado adds. “This fear and this level of uncertainty not only affects their mental health but also threatens to derail their educational and future opportunities and aspirations.”

Somos spoke with three current and future students who are undocumented to better understand how they are feeling and coping during the second Trump administration. 

I came to the United States from Venezuela when I was 3 years old. It was me, my mom, and my brother who was one at the time. We came on a tourist visa with the intention of staying in the United States due to the political turmoil that was happening back home. We grew up in the U.S., and I don't have any recollection of my three years in Venezuela. 

I was raised n Corona, Queens, which is a pretty diverse neighborhood. It wasn’t until college that I realized how much my undocumented status affected my opportunities and how it limited the ways I could build a life for myself. After graduating high school, I wasn't able to accept scholarships, I wasn't able to apply for grants, and I wasn't able to apply for financial aid. You have to have some form of government documentation that represents who you are in order to apply for these things, and I didn’t have that. Still, I managed to graduate from a state school without debt, and now, 10 years later, I am studying media communications at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The current administration definitely causes a lot of anxiety. I need to get my DACA renewed this year, which means I'm definitely getting ahead of the renewal process way sooner than usual. I want to get ahead of it because things are taking longer than usual because of all the fear that's being instilled through the news. I can’t wait until I renew it and breathe in the relief of being secure for two more years. I'm really trying to stick to the facts when it comes to how the administration is monitoring undocumented students and undocumented immigrants. Knowing that I currently do have the proper paperwork and the proper identification that's up to date is a relief

But when it comes to either an internship or filling out a job application, there's always that question: Do you need to get sponsored in order to work for us in the future? And I don’t know what to put down because I don’t know what documents I will need in the future, because everything around immigration is so chaotic right now. It feels like this is going to affect my ability to get employment after I graduate. The future right now looks grayer than ever — and it has looked grey for a while. 

My family came to the U.S. in 1999 from Guadalajara, Mexico, so I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is my second Trump administration as an undocumented university student. The first time around, I lived in Dallas and studied psychology at the University of North Texas. I remember checking my phone freshman year as the votes were being counted, hoping that he wouldn’t win. When I realized that he was going to win, I didn’t know what that meant for me, but it did destroy a few of my future plans. I had been looking into studying abroad for a semester in my sophomore year, but Trump decided he wanted to get rid of DACA. I decided it wasn’t a safe time for me to go abroad, so I missed that opportunity, and there were other friends who missed it, too, and were forced to come back to the U.S. so they didn’t lose their DACA status. It was very much a time of uncertainty. 

This time around, the uncertainty and fear feel worse. Trump’s attacks on immigration and diversity have become more intense. I live in Dallas, and my workplace has prepared us for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, so it's been very real. As a business student, I don’t know where I’ll be able to work. I just bought my first home, and I don’t even know what Trump is going to do. Like, do I live just like I did before? It feels harder and harder, I am constantly worrying about what I am going to do and always wondering what the next big hit against our community will be. 

I think education is essential, and I really believe we need it the most right now — not just as an undocumented student but also as a member of the Latine community trying to educate people on undocumented immigrants. That’s why I speak about being undocumented openly on my social media. I've met a lot of people that think they never met an undocumented immigrant. They believe undocumented immigrants are criminals and bad people, and when they meet someone like me they’re shocked. I really believe it’s about breaking down that barrier and showing people that I am human just like them. I have dreams and goals. I have a perfectly normal life. I could be your daughter's best friend.

This country taught me that you can achieve all goals if you work hard. That's what we're doing. We're following that philosophy of freedom, and we’re pursuing our goals and dreams. All we want is to achieve those dreams and goals for ourselves and for our families. We're not doing anything different from what other Americans have been doing for years. And we are as American as the American flag.

I came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when I was six. I've been here for almost 30 years. I might not be a citizen, but I very much consider myself a New Yorker. After I graduated high school, I ended up going to City College, but I dropped out in my second year of higher education because I needed to help my family with their business so we could stay afloat financially. That’s actually a very common reason why undocumented students drop out of college. At the time, I dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

I’m a DACA recipient, and Trump has repeatedly tried to get rid of DACA during his previous administration, but he was stopped by judicial decisions. I’m not as nervous as other undocumented groups because DACA provides me with certain protections, but I’ve been making sure I am educated and make people around me aware of what’s going on, as well as making sure that all my documents are up to date. 

What’s scary about Trump 2.0 is that this administration is being very, very aggressive about pursuing immigrants. It doesn't matter if you have a residency or if you're in the middle of a transition between visas, they've been very aggressive. They’re ignoring the checks and balances, so it’s concerning to know that the current administration doesn't even care about established rules. 

I’ve always been very adamant about education. In high school, I was a valedictorian and I studied a lot. Even now, at 33 and as a father of a six-month-old daughter, I like to read and study politics. I’ve been contemplating going back to school to find a new career path, maybe in programming or in nursing. Even before this administration, I’ve always had a desire to pursue education, which has been difficult due to my immigration status. Despite these hurdles, I am an advocate for education in my own community, keeping myself educated and also educating others on the misinformation within the Latine community. 

The misinformation proliferating in the Latine community has further convinced me that without education — which many undocumented people are not able to get — we will be turned against each other. I’ve heard people in the community spread fake news about newer immigrants who are getting benefits that more established immigrants never got. I think education is the answer and the biggest resource we have to fight back against this. I think there’s an intersection at play: when you have a lack of education, when citizens are not educated, then they don't make the proper long-term choices. Ultimately, this intersection explains where we are now. And the best way to resist it is to keep our minds active and educated.