During the 2016 presidential campaign, one of the main topics was in regards to immigration laws. Donald Trump said he would plan on cracking down on the immigration laws, and stated that if he was elected, he would remove the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Donald Trump is now the president elect, and there are many undocumented students, in lower and upper education, who are fearing deportation. Without specification of what he would do in place of DACA, undocumented students are currently waiting and preparing for him to take office.
Growing up in a small agricultural town, it is no surprise that a few of my friends are undocumented. Most of them were high achievers in high school, and thanks to current laws, were able to make their way into college. Following the election, many of them are worried that all of their hard work will have gone to waste. They came to the United States as children with their parents, and they did not have a say in the decision. Some of them did not even know that they were illegal until it was time for them to apply for college.
I argue that undocumented students are trying with the resources they have to live the American Dream and doing no harm to the American society, and that lower education schools need to take responsibility to make sure that undocumented students are provided with the resources they need in order to pursue a higher education. Finally, I argue that with the state of uncertainty surrounding DACA, more universities would benefit from creating sanctuary campuses in order to keep their undocumented students safe.
Undocumented Students 