Modesto-area immigrant students fear Trump’s election means an end to their dreams

The transition of the executive branch affects us all, but few have more at stake than young immigrants raised here after a campaign that pledged to stomp their dreams into dust.

“People are definitely both panicked and calm,” said immigration attorney Patrick Kolasinski, who said he walked into his Modesto office the day after the election to find 91 voice messages waiting for him. The panic follows pledges to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and deport all those homegrown immigrants; the calm comes from knowing the process of deportation takes time – possibly more time than the next administration will have.

“Will (President-elect Donald) Trump end it the day he takes office as he promised during the campaign, and start deporting millions of immigrants? People are very afraid – some so scared they are keeping their kids home from school. We just don’t know what he will do,” said attorney Solange Altman, who also specializes in immigration law.

Altman will take part in a Modesto City Schools presentation on immigration issues at 6 p.m. Dec. 1 in the Modesto High auditorium.

El Concilio, too, has had a lot of calls from people afraid of threatened mass deportations and raids, said staffer Luis Zavala. Zavala was manning a table at a California State University, Stanislaus, rally on Tuesday to answer questions.

College campuses across California have done the same, pledging solidarity at rallies, suppers and vigils. Tuesday was a national day of action declaring campuses around the nation as “Sanctuary Campuses,” said student speaker Jennifer Morales.

Stanislaus State student Carlos Barajas has a personal stake in whatever comes next. Barajas came to the United States when he was 3, part of a family that applied for permanent residency when he was 5. But at 26, he no longer falls under his parents’ status.

“I’m still in limbo,” said Barajas, who hopes to become a counselor.

For now, he is one of the 366,987 Californians allowed to legally work and study under the DACA program, folks better known as Dreamers. But what President Barack Obama created by executive action, a President Trump will be able to undo with a pen stroke.

“Yes, absolutely Trump could withdraw it in a heartbeat,” Kolasinski said. Such an order would instantly close DACA applications, but could stop short of revoking work permits already granted. “I’m putting money on him revoking all the work permits for kids who already have them. But I’m a pessimist,” Kolasinski added.

Most Dreamers are working. Out of those 366,987 California Dreamers, 6,956 were receiving California financial aid for college. Somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 Dreamers live in Stanislaus County, said Homero Mejia with Congregations Building Community.

Mejia said the Trump transition team has said DACA will be canceled as one of the new president’s first acts, and the fear is that immigration agents will use the DACA database to target those who applied.

“This shouldn’t happen to our young people after they did everything the right way,” he said. His group is counseling immigrants to know their rights and, if detained, ask for a lawyer and sign nothing until they have met with the lawyer or have gone before a judge.

Dreamer Sara Arroyo Hernandez, an MJC political science student who works with Mejia, said she knows what to do if arrested. Beyond that, she said, “I have allies who will stand by me and support me. There are safe places for me to be at, and not be taken away from a country that I’ve known for 12 years.”

Arroyo Hernandez said she came to the United States as an 8-year-old and found the Trump campaign rhetoric “heartbreaking.” Still, she has friends who voted for him believing he would bring more jobs and better pay. “They have the privilege to vote as they voted,” she said. “It’s America and everyone has their opinion. I’m not angry, it’s just trying to understand what’s in their heart.”

Mejia’s group is one of four community nonprofits partnering with Modesto Junior College to form a “Dream Network” on campus to provide support for all undocumented students, said President Jill Stearns. The collective held its first “Sabados De Educacion,” free college workshops for Spanish speakers, on Nov. 19.

Over the past two years, MJC has hired 13 so-called success specialists, working with students to ease their path through the red tape to college completion, including immigrants of any status, said James Todd, MJC vice president of student services.

“We are continuing business as usual,” Todd said via email, “which means celebrating our campus diversity, maintaining our commitment to inclusivity, and being an open access institution devoted to all students that arrive on our campus seeking to transform and improve their lives.”

At Stanislaus State, President Ellen Junn and campus leadership groups sent out a message to students this past week urging any who felt unsafe to speak up and get support.

“As it does in nature, diversity makes a system robust and resilient. Now more than ever, we must come together, all of us – faculty, staff, students, the entire university community – to ensure that we remain resilient, that diversity continues to be one of our strongest attributes, that we are inclusive of every individual, and that our campus remains a safe and welcoming environment for all,” the message concludes.

Beyond the protective stance of college campuses, revoking the Dream is easier said than done. Courts handling immigration cases routinely take five to nine years to adjudicate a case, Kolasinski pointed out, with only 90 minutes usually given for a final hearing.

“I had one case where we all agreed my client would be dead within seven days upon hitting the ground in his home country. We literally had a 1 1/2 hour hearing to decide if he was going to die or not,” he said. Already packed court calendars, now setting even such abbreviated hearings two to five years out, are ill-equipped to handle 1.3 million more cases.

California, moreover, has set up some protections for immigrants. The Unruh Civil Rights Act prohibits local or state agencies from discriminating based on immigration status, limiting law enforcement’s help to U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. The Trust Act cuts back on immigration holds.

Immigration attorney Altman said even rounding up the Dreamers would be a problem. “ICE presently has the manpower and resources to deport about 400,000 people per year. If they focus on criminal aliens and those with deportation orders, that’s all they can do,” she said via email Tuesday.

“To deport millions more, who are productive and law-abiding, would require Congress to appropriate billions of dollars for more police, detention centers and immigration courts – a cost estimated between $400 billion to $600 billion,” she said. Her hopes lie with Republican senators who have talked about a path to citizenship instead.

“I hope and pray some good will come of this insane rhetoric,” Altman said.

Local high schools have reported few problems, but anxiety is high. Ceres Unified Superintendent Scott Siegel sent out an email to staff members urging them to connect distressed students in all grades with mental health and support services available at Ceres schools.

“Your co-administrators verified today that there are many students who are anxious, upset, angry or experiencing similar emotions,” Siegel’s letter said. “First, and foremost, we are here to educate students. That is our mission. That mission cuts across political points of view.”

There were no incidents, but many intense discussions, at Davis High in Modesto, where recent immigrants from around the world attend the Language Institute program.

“Honestly, we have been dealing with the ‘Trump effect’ for a while now. It was crazy to see how LI students personalized the revelation when they found out staff or people in our community supported Trump. They truly felt like it was a vote against them. We have been forced to have many conversations about American politics, race and religion, and respect for political differences over the past few months,” said teacher Lindsey Bird.

The tremendous diversity of Davis, with students forming relationships across so many cultures, she said, likely helped keep the campus on a fairly even keel through it all.

“I will not lie – (last) Wednesday there were tears, fears, questions, and anger. One Syrian student told me ‘My humanity was on the ballot and I lost’,” Bird said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Modesto-area immigrant students fear Trump’s election means an end to their dreams."