When you’re a kid surrounded by family, friends and community who have been there for your first steps, your graduations and around the house — you don’t question whether that loved one is “supposed” to be in this country.
As a Mexican from the Calexico border, my loved ones have always been immigrants.
Trump-era politics have demonized immigration status, litigating who belongs where in the communities we surround ourselves with. His policies attempt to turn a person’s legal standing into their entire identity.
From New York to San Jose, our newsfeeds are flooded with images and videos of heavily-armed federal agents escorting undocumented immigrants out of the country.
The first few weeks of Trump’s second presidency are actualizing our fears of mass raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on undocumented communities.
To facilitate his mass deportation efforts, Trump signed an executive order, “Protecting The American People Against Invasion,” which commits to withdrawing federal funding from “sanctuary institutions.”
The order would directly target institutions like the University of California, which has maintained its status as a “sensitive location” under the Oct. 2011 Enforcement Actions at or Focused on Sensitive Locations memorandum.
This document bars ICE activities such as arrests, interviews, searches and — for purposes of immigration enforcement only — surveillance in sensitive areas. Areas include places of worship, hospitals and universities in which over 408,000 students throughout the nation are undocumented.
As the machinations in Washington materialize in the form of widespread raids, it’s easy to feel that we can do nothing but watch the spectacle inch closer and closer. It is only a matter of time before this issue comes knocking on our doors and the few spaces that were once safe are taken from us.
Every picture, video, testimony and sighting of the Department of Homeland Security furthering Trump’s mass deportation initiative is a reminder that there are people who want us and our loved ones gone.
As a Latin American student, these images and videos are seared into the back of my brain. We know this new era of xenophobia will inevitably work its way into the communities and circles we call home.
Peoples’ unwillingness to accept immigrants, no matter their documentation status, is deeply entrenched in our community. To be subject to that unwillingness can be paralyzing.
Think, if you saw news clip after news clip of the president asserting how much better the United States would be without “your kind poisoning our blood,” would you feel welcome?
If you opened your phone to headline after headline of raids against your community, would you feel safe walking into a city council meeting? A doctor’s office? A grocery store?
If you sacrificed everything you had to come to a new country solely to provide a better life for your loved ones, how would you feel about being labeled a rapist, a murderer, a “nonhuman?” Or told that you’re stealing jobs from more deserving people? How would you feel about the plans taking shape to create a concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay?
For the subjects in these news stories, they are more than headlines or Instagram posts. It is the loss of a family member, a friend, a colleague or a partner. It is the destruction of a life.
In the past, UC Santa Cruz has shown its support for undocumented students by offering resources such as legal counsel and representation through UC Immigrant Legal Services Center since 2014.
UCSC programs such as Undocumented Student Services host “Know Your Rights” seminars that prepare undocumented students for encounters with immigration officials. Student groups such as Undocuslugs and Improving Dreams, Equity, Access, and Success (IDEAS) offer similar guidance.
Although these community and university efforts provide resources to those at risk, the new Trump administration has displayed an even stronger desire to erode protections and safeguards currently in place. It remains to be seen how the university will make good on California’s commitment to stand with undocumented students — a commitment codified in California Assembly Bill 21.
We cannot hope for much from our government, so we call on our administration for transparency on current policies and goals for policy improvements regarding ICE’s activity on campus information that may be shared with immigration officials.
We call on the UC to continue and further develop its support for programs helping undocumented students. Most of all, we call on the university to prioritize the safety and security of all community members — especially those under direct attack by the president of the United States — over any amount of federal funding.
Our community is in grave danger. So UCSC and the entirety of the UC system: Show us that you care. Prove to undocumented students that they are deserving of an institution who follows through on its promises to “improve access for the historically underrepresented” and to “clear barriers that prevent the full expression of potential among students.”
We need more than general statements and emails made in an attempt to subdue our fears. We need a genuine effort on behalf of the administration to further acknowledge and affirm our undocumented peers’ right to education.
This is for my family, for my friends, for my partner and for my community — we cannot accept the reality we are living in.
El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.
The people united will never be defeated.