Trump tells CA’s colleges to stop the help of students who are not citizens

From Adam EchelmanCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

President Donald Trump has targeted students and teachers at the elite institutions in California, such as UC Berkeley and UCLA, but the colleges in the Community, who enroll the greater part of the students of the state, largely avoid the administration.

Until recently. US Department of Education Declared on March 27 that it stops California universities and colleges to use federal funding to “provide services to illegal immigrants.” The Education Division is a specific concern Federal trio programswhich provide different forms of financial assistance and consultation to low -income students, first generation.

California schools do not track how many of their students do not have legal status. Though The exact figures are difficult to captureSome evaluations, such as the number of state aid applications, suggest that there are thousands of students without legal status, most of whom attend community colleges in California.

More than 100,000 students in California have been enrolled in a trio program, said Dalia Hernandez, president of a professional association who works closely with these programs. Informal colleges know that some students in these programs do not have legal status. Now the trio on the campus is struggling with the president’s order and wondering if they will have to start documenting citizenship.

Although the non -education did not meet the conditions for federal financial assistance, in 2022 the education department provided a special permit in California to enroll them in the academic services of Triio Programs until September 2026.

The administration now takes away this permission.

In Webinar, for an increase several days after the announcement of the Education Division, the organization of Hernandes, the Western Association of Educational Opportunities, told the college leaders that they could continue to serve students in their programs, regardless of immigration status. However, moving forward, schools will have to reject any suspect non-graduate, she said. The Federal Education Department has not yet given additional guidance on how to interpret the change of Trio’s policy.

“I was in 1000 meetings, talking about every executive order that comes out and every meeting is like:” Well, we don’t know what will happen and it will probably be blocked by a federal judge, so it just stays, “said Brian Bumer, director of grant at the West Hills Municipal College in California. “It was a little different because they actually gave a directive.”

Outside of California, it is easy to understand why some may claim that these federal dollars should only serve US citizens, Bumer said. But in Freshno and Kings, where his Community College is located, he said that many immigrants are built into the community, work in nearby farms and send their children to schools and colleges in the region. “This is the population you serve,” he said. “Our area feeds the country.”

Coalinga College is one of the two schools in its area. More than 70% of its students identify themselves as Latin American, and many are current or former farm workers or farmers. The largest college trio program called student support services has just under 200 low-incomes, enrolled first-generation students, said Lizett Padila, who runs it.

Some of these students probably have no legal status, she said, but it’s not clear how much.

“Heartbreaking” change for a student

As a low -income student with disabilities in the training and the first in his family to attend a college, Ja knew that he needed help in navigating Oxnard College, a college in the community in Ventura County. He applied for one of the trio programs in 2021, but said he was rejected because program administrators suspect he was not a US citizen. Calmatters agreed to refuse its name because he was afraid to draw attention to his legal status.

“I thought it would be for all first -generation students,” he said. “I felt like I was abandoned.”

Two years later, after the state obtained a special permission from the federal government, the program director turned to J again, this time to encourage him to apply again. As part of one of the trio programs, J received guidance one with campus advisers, which helped to ensure that he was about to achieve his academic goals and transfer to a four -year university. The trio staff also took it on trips to visit various colleges, including Cal State Northridge, Chico State and Cal State Long Beach.

Last summer, it is recorded on the islands of Kal canal, ready to gain a bachelor’s degree. Many campuses of Cal State and University of California offer trio programs to their students, but Channel Islands is not one of them. “It’s very disappointing,” he said, because he hoped to remain enrolled in one of the trio programs.

Even if the university begins to offer trio programs, it will not qualify if colleges implement a change in the Trump administration policy. J said it was “heartbreaking” that students without legal status would no longer have this opportunity to enroll.

In the first few days after the announcement of the Trump administration, schools received little guidance on how to react and searched for Hernandez, chairman of the Regional Association, for guidance. She said her interpretation is that the trio programs are required to evaluate the student’s eligibility only when they first enroll. As a result, she said that schools do not need to throw out students who are currently enrolled but should not register new students who have no legal status.

She also recommended that schools review their admission forms so that students can only identify themselves as men or women. “We defend the programs and funding we have,” Hernandez said, citing Trump’s An enforcement order for gender identitywhich prohibits the US government from recognizing expansive terms such as non-grating.

Padila said she was concerned that Coalinga College at one point may need consulting services away from students without law who are in the program. She said that the emergency plan is to move those students to such programs that are funded by the state and who do not want evidence of citizenship.

Lizette Navarette, president of Woodland Community College near Sacramento, said he was cautious from the original decision to allow students without a law to receive services through a federal program. “There was some concern about how safe the students would be because it was a federal grant,” she said. For more than a year, her college has directed these students to hold programs that, according to her, often have more capacity and do not share data with the federal government.

Will the trio be cut?

In 2021, the National Association for the TRIO Administrators, the State University of the Mud, the UC system, the California Department of Education and more than 80 other organizations signed letter addressed to the US Department of Education, urging it to allow students without a law to enroll in a trio programs.

But over the years, support has declined.

The Federal Government allowed California to expand access to Trio programs as part of a pilot that was due to end next year. In 2023 and 2024, when the US Department of Education discussed access to other states and in a permanent manner, California institutions again again They expressed their support. But the National Association was silent, said Antoaneta Flores, director of a higher education research team at The Think Tank New America.

She said that the Association, known as the Council for Education opportunities, fears that resolving students without law can cause more control than the Trump administration and put the whole program at risk. The Association did not respond to CalMatters’ request for comment.

“Over the years, we have had very strong bilateral support for federal trio programs,” says Hernandez, who is also a regional representative of the National Association. But she admitted that nothing was certain. “There is rhetoric about the dismantling of these federal programs from the current administration.”

She said that her Regional Association still wants to include all low -income students, the first generation in a trio programs, including students without legal status, but other colleges and universities outside the state may have a different perspective. “California is one of the few states in the country that has resources and support intended for unspecified students and young people. Others may not have so much.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.