‘I’m scared all the time’: Trump’s immigration rhetoric worries UC Merced ‘dreamers’

Two houses just outside the city of Merced have become homes for about a dozen UC Merced students who, as undocumented immigrants, increasingly worry about their future.

They are bracing for executive actions from new President Donald Trump, who has talked about eliminating several of former President Barack Obama’s actions on immigration, including the deferred-action program, known as DACA, that protects an estimated 750,000 immigrants, sometimes called “dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

“I’m scared all the time,” Zuleyma Guillermo said Wednesday in the living room of one of the houses. “I’m scared what would happen to all the people in this house.”

The 21-year-old from Los Angeles is the manager of Mi Casa SALE, the rental property run through the UC Merced student group Students Advocating Law and Education.

This semester, 12 students pay to stay at Mi Casa, though it’s held as many as 14, according to Guillermo. Being undocumented is not required, but almost all of the tenants are.

Undocumented students can face extra hurdles to attend college because they can’t access all of the same financial aid available to students with residency. Their undocumented parents also may not be able to co-sign for loans.

Guillermo, who came from the Mexican state of Guerrero before she turned 4, said she wants Mi Casa to be a place where students can feel safe to discuss their immigration status and fears surrounding it.

“That fear of what other students are going to say,” she said. “That still happens even though I think of UC Merced as a very undocumented-friendly place.”

Many undocumented students come from low-income families as well, so the house is an affordable place to live. Rooms range from $200 to $490 per month.

“This is something we really need,” said Reyna Gabriel-Peralta, who stays at Mi Casa. “As first-generation students, we don’t have that support from our families. ... We can’t go home and ask our family (for money).”

Gabriel-Peralta was 6 when she came with her mother and brother from Oaxaca, Mexico. They’ve bounced around from Las Vegas, Watsonville and Modesto.

The 20-year-old said the home has given her a sense of security, and the older students in the house have been a good resource for advice.

The Mi Casa residents said immigration policy under the Obama administration started to show steps for a path to citizenship, but they’re waiting to see what Trump’s administration ushers in. He’s promised to build a wall on the Mexican border, yanked federal funding from sanctuary cities and talked about deporting 11 million people without documentation.

At UC Merced last semester, 460 students were undocumented, according to Bright Success Center staff.

The Trump administration is likely to use one of three options for DACA, according to Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.: Trump could discontinue issuing any new deferred action, he could kill the program and revoke those already issued, or he could renew only those already issued but decline to issue more.

The center opposes Obama’s executive action that brought DACA into being, Camarota said.

“Everybody agrees that this is a sympathetic population and it would be good to find a solution. We’re not against that, either,” he said. “We just don’t think the president can act unilaterally and unconstitutionally.”

The center, a think tank that describes itself as “low-immigration, pro-immigrant,” would support a combination of a path to citizenship for those in the country already, better immigration enforcement and a reduction in the numbers allowed in legally. That sort of “horse trading” could be worked out by those on either side of the aisle, he said.

Back in Merced, the students at Mi Casa said they took in the election, some of them shedding tears. Ahead of last week’s inauguration, they decided to keep the TV off and throw a party.

It was the last night the tenants could all have fun and not wring their hands over immigration, Guillermo said. That’s soon to change.

“I used to be an advocate to say who you are ... say you’re undocumented,” she said. “We’re really not criminals.”

Hundreds of faculty members from across the University of California system have signed a “faculty statement” that expressed “strong and unwavering support for Dream Scholars and students from mixed immigration status families on our campuses.” Other jurisdictions, such as the city of San Francisco and Livingston Union School District, have declared themselves safe havens.

The talk of sanctuary campuses or cities isn’t much comfort, Gabriel-Peralta said, because there’s always the chance of getting stopped by police on the street or in other cities.

“You have that stress with you all the time,” she said.

Mi Casa also has been used for banquets and other events, according to Guillermo. The staff is looking at making the home available for more community events.

For more on Mi Casa, email Guillermo at zuleyma.guillermo@gmail.com. For more on SALE, go to www.facebook.com/SALE4US.

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 5:02 PM with the headline "‘I’m scared all the time’: Trump’s immigration rhetoric worries UC Merced ‘dreamers’."