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Applying for college aid has become even more stressful for some students who now fear “disclosing” their undocumented parents on financial aid forms, as President-elect Donald Trump promised. mass deportationsaccording to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
“Why does Trump’s election mean that I will have to suffer as a citizen for my parents’ choice to move to a better life in America?” a high school student, whose father illegally immigrated to the United States from Guatemala 28 years ago, he told the newspaper.
The teen and her father recently visited college counselor Lynda McGee, according to the report. Her father wanted McGee to help the student fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the form commonly known as FAFSA, which schools use to calculate Pell Grants, federal loans and other financial aid for students.
But the application requires parents’ Social Security numbers, and students and counselors fear that a missing entry could raise questions about immigration status.
“Unfortunately, I have dozens of students in the same situation,” McGee told the LA Times. “They have to choose between their future and that of their parents.”
High school seniors whose parents are in the country illegally are concerned that a question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid could raise red flags about their parents’ immigration status. (Jenna Watson/IndyStar via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
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About 5.1 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented family member, according to the American Immigration Councila pro-immigration group.
Trump said he is prepared to declare a national emergency and potentially use military assets as part of a mass deportation effort. While the president says the priority is expelling illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, his administration is prepared to move on otherwise law-abiding immigrants after that.
Although the guidelines of the Department of Education Claim that Social Security data is not shared for any purpose other than determining and awarding financial aid, college counselors and student advocacy groups are warning students from “mixed-status families” that there could still be danger.
He National College Achievement Networka nonprofit student advocacy group, said it “cannot assure mixed-status students and families” that FAFSA data will continue to be protected “in light of the priorities publicly outlined by the incoming administration.”
Donald Trump speaks with NBC News anchor Kristen Welker in his first interview since winning the election. (Screenshot/NBC)
“It’s already a stressful process navigating how to get into college and how to pay for it as a first-generation student who does almost all of this on your own,” a student whose parents are undocumented immigrants from Puebla, Mexico, told Congress. Times. “But with this confusion and waiting for FAFSA, I feel like my wings are being clipped.”
The Guatemalan father still wanted his daughter to ask for help.
“Filling out the FAFSA may or may not hurt me. But if it can help her, I should do it,” he said, according to the Times.
In addition to attacking those in the country illegally, Trump has also long advocated ending birthright citizenship through a “day one” executive order, which would almost certainly be challenged on constitutional grounds.
When asked about the millions of American citizens living in mixed-status households in NBC News Last month, Trump suggested deporting entire family units.
“I don’t want to break up families,” Trump said. “So the only way to not break up the family is to keep it together and send everyone back.”
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” has floated the idea of putting children of illegal immigrants in halfway houses as part of the incoming administration’s mass deportation plan. Alternatively, the president-elect has suggested deporting American citizens along with their parents. (Mark Abramson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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But the president-elect was softer on the “Dreamers” who entered the United States as minors and were protected from deportation under a Obama-era order.
“We have to do something with the Dreamers, because they are people who have been brought here at a very young age, and many of them are now middle-aged people, they don’t even speak the language of their country,” he said. he said, adding, “I will work with Democrats on a plan.”