Dreamers uncertain about future with the coming of Trump’s second term
By Dani Miskell
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California (KGTV) — A second Donald Trump presidency comes with uncertainty for the millions of dreamers in the United States.
“Dreamers” is the term used for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipients.
The DACA program has been in a six-year legal challenge after President Trump and other Republicans attempted to terminate it, arguing that money and resources are going toward those who don’t have legal status.
Since it began 12 years ago, DACA has allowed undocumented, eligible young adults who came to the U.S. as children to work and go to school without fear of deportation.
Some of those students go to Cal State University San Marcos.
CSUSM also has mixed-status students and undocumented students enrolled at its campus.
Juan Sanchez, a senior at CSUSM, is studying environmental studies, and he says he is a mixed-status student, which means he has a family who is undocumented.
Sanchez also has friends he goes to school with who are undocumented, and Wednesday was a very different morning for them.
“I have friends who were scared coming to campus for the first couple of classes because they don’t know if checkpoints will be open,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said the election results are making him feel “a wave of sadness.”
“I have a lot of family, friends, and people I really care about that are gonna be really affected by this result,” Sanchez said. “It’s affecting people that I really love.”
Because of his status, Sanchez has been fully plugged into the university’s ‘DREAMers Resource Office.’
Viridiana Diaz, Vice President of Student Affairs, said, “It’s really providing a safe environment for our students, because they do have unique circumstances. We help them pursue their goals, academic goals, or professional goals in a way that works with their status.”
Diaz said the campus has undocumented students enrolled from around the world, and that is why the university created back in 2017 the ‘DREAMers Resource Office.’ It helps undocumented students, mixed-status students, and others with free legal advice, assistance with applying for private scholarships, counseling, and more.
“I would say fear is part of their everyday reality,” Diaz said. “They’re not really able to plan the way that most 18 to 25-year-olds are planning the future in terms of what they want to do three years from now, five years from now because they don’t really know what the future holds for them.”
Diaz said post-election, the ‘DREAMers Resource Office’ will focus on helping students like Sanchez feel supported.
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