Some blame Trump as students’ financial assistance applications fall

The fewer seniors of the California High School fill in federal financial aid applications than in recent years, which some analysts say is a sign that students may be afraid that the Trump administration will use their sensitive information on implementing immigration S

The number of adults who filled the free federal student aid application or FAFSA has dropped by about 48,000 students, or 25%from last week, compared to this point last year. Over the two years, the deadline for financial assistance in California – as a refusal to fully cover the training at public universities plus other awards – is in early March.

It also dramatically reduces the share of applicants who have at least one parent who has been undocumented: this number has sunk 44% so far this year compared to this point last year – out of about 30,000 students, then to 17,000 now.

Thehe Come early data By the California Student Aid Committee, the State Agency that is dealing with financial assistance. The Commission this morning will hold a webinar With high school advisers about the consequences of this decline and how to encourage more students to apply for help.

The Trump administration has not announced plans to use application information to focus on deportment people.

“This is very disturbing,” said Daisy Gonzalez, CEO of the Commission, decreased in an interview with the application. “This is a crisis in the sense that we have the perfect storm.” The White House Accelerated deportation campaignfires in southern California that displaced thousands of families and burn some schools, plus the students Continued Control of College Education Value are all the forces that Gonzalez says can stand behind the drop.

If the tendency of less applications is, it is afraid that “we lose another generation of students who need to enroll, they must succeed.”

The Commission extended the state aid deadline By April 2 For students in the cities of Los Angeles and Ventura, where much of the destructive winter fires appeared.

Problems with California and FAFSA are not new

College experts have warned last fall that families with undocumented members living in the United States call into question the safety of data. Leading Associations of College Advisers told students to Consider giving up FAFSA to protect their loved ones. While this legislation restricts the information about students and family introduced in the application only for the purposes of financial assistance, legal experts told Calmatters These rules can change Presidency like Donald Trump. Some students with undocumented parents are specifically suspicious of a line in the application for parents asking them if They have a social security number and prompted to fill in an identity check form.

Gonzalez attended financial assistance fairs that the Commission sponsored and heard from families about their fears from FAFSA. “The number one question that would ask me is:” Is it safe to apply and what are my options? “She said.

While FAFSA is a federal application, California has its own state application that the student assistance Commission emphasizes is not shared with federal agencies. It is called California’s application for an act of dreamsKnown as Cadaa. Legal experts have told CalMatters that federal agencies will need A clearly high legal lane to access these government records.

Cadaa provides students with access to refusal to state learning and several thousand dollars in other grants, but FAFSA is the only way for students to receive federal student loans and Pell grant, which can Give more than $ 7,000 a year for low -income studentsS

Initially intended for undocumented students, the state’s statement last year was expanded to allow students with a parent who is not a citizen to apply for state aid. The Student Assistance Commission has made this step due to mass technological problems with Updated FAFSA last yearS But a senior employee of the Student Aid Commission told the lawmakers of California last year that the state application may need to take on a bigger role in the processing of students’ financial assistance if the federal immigration climate changes – it changes – it changes – it changes of the immigration climate – trump nodS

Two new state bills can help, Gonzalez and other commission officials said. A person would Extend State Aid Deadline to April 3S Another would Allow more Californians to use CadaaS Both bills are in their early stages, although lengthening legislation can move quickly: MPs last March rushed to extend the deadline for state subsidies To deal with those related to the technical federal request related to technology.

“We have examples of families that have actually chosen not to apply for FAFSA and instead have selected Cadaa,” says Marcos Montes, director of college policy in Southern California, a coalition of non -profit organizations that helps students to apply for a college college Both college and financial assistance. He said it was what advisers on the web told him who specifically worked with families living in public housing.

Montes said that most mixed status families he met, who are previous FAFSA, are those who apply for financial assistance for the first time. They are less familiar with the process and are more collective to share information with the federal government, especially if they have submitted little, if any, personal records of the federal authorities.

“They are aware that they leave money from financial aid on the table,” he said.

The federal role unclear, the loss of money can be steep

There are many unknown to Trump’s plans for students’ financial assistance data, but Montes listed several new developments that he and his colleagues have accessible to college. One is the group of billionaire Elon Musk, called the Ministry of Government Efficiency, which is reported to have gained access to a student loan records. Last week the Association of Students at the University of California brought a case against the Trump administration To stop Musk’s access group to student financial assistance files. In response to the US Department of Education on Wednesday said it would temporarily block the Musk group to have access to these files, Moving the Federal Judge, who monitors the approved caseS This deal will continue at least on February 17th.

Another concern is that the Federal Department of Homeland Security, which includes immigration agencies, has asked the employees of the Internal Revenue Office for the removal of persons who are in the country illegal, The Washington Post reported this week. This is another indication of how the implementation of immigration is paired with external agencies, Montes said.

For students who have already applied for federal financial assistance in recent years or whose parents have filed tax returns, the federal government already has its information. This is explained by the California University of Students.

“If your family has presented this information in the past, it may continue to be available to the same government agencies,” the university wrote on a student pageS “The FAFSA submission in this case may not increase the amount of information about your family, which is already available to the federal government. However, if your family did not have any data exchanged in these or other spaces, then submission of FAFSA may present new information about your family’s condition. “

The UC Advisory Group in December estimates that if every student with uncompanied family members has abandoned federal assistance by filling out only the state application, $ 85 million grant Sam would remain unusedS

“The University of California has no resources to fill for $ 85 million for missing Pell federal grants, even less lost access to federal student loans or work,” writes Steet Holbrook, a UC spokesman, in a statement to CalMatters.