New immigration policies continue to threaten the future of millions of immigrants in the United States, as well as programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status and support systems for those studying from abroad.
The Trump administration has escalated its immigration agenda, stripping immigrant communities of due process rights and accelerating deportations, with individuals being deported without the chance to challenge removal orders, according to a Feb. 20 article from the Human Rights Watch.
Despite President Donald J. Trump’s implemented aggressive executive order 14159 on immigration, advocacy groups and immigrant communities continue to push back against unlawful deportations with protests and political organizing.
Vianey Aguirre, an organizer for Jóvenes Por La Justicia and a third-year political science student at SJSU, elaborated on the effects of the visa revocations targeting students of various programs and the community.
Jóvenes Por La Justicia is a student-led initiative at SJSU that aims to fight for the rights of undocumented students, according to the group’s Instagram page.
“Recently, we’ve seen on the news and even on campus, how we have a lot of our students who are here legally on visas get their visas revoked,” Aguirre said. “A lot of it is coming from the presidency that we have right now. Last I checked, it was about 32 to 42 students across UC and CSU campuses who were getting their visas revoked.”
At SJSU, 13 students have been affected by having their visas revoked, according to an April 9 Spartan Daily article.
In an April 25 email sent to the Spartan Daily, Michelle Smith McDonald, SJSU senior director of media relations, said that six of those students had their visas reinstated.On April 10, Jóvenes Por La Justicia held a rally to advocate for SJSU’s undocumented students, according to an April 4 Instagram post.
“We wanted the (SJSU) president to kind of hear our voices and put out a statement,” Aguirre said. “We saw that the statement she put out really didn’t say much, except ‘this is what’s happening.’ There wasn’t a ‘this is what we’re trying to do for our students here. We’re still trying to protect the students, and that’s what we want from her.”
In a campus-wide email sent on Apr. 10, SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said that the university is dedicated to creating a supportive and respectful environment for all members of the campus community, regardless of immigration or visa status.
The email also said the administration is working closely with the CSU system, legal experts, and campus partners to respond responsibly as the situation develops.
After facing lawsuits and court rulings, the Trump administration agreed to reinstate SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) records for affected students, according to an Apr. 25 article from CBS News.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System is a government database used to track international students and exchange visitors in the United States, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In an email sent to the Spartan Daily on Apr. 25, Michelle Smith McDonald, SJSU’s senior director of media relations, confirmed the reinstatement of some SJSU student visas.
“The university is aware of six students who have had their SEVIS accounts reactivated,” Smith McDonald wrote. “We are supporting all students with any issues of enrollment, employment, and university payments as a result of the changes.”
Jessenia Garcia-Morales, interim legal program manager at Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), said that it is important for people to know that they have rights.
“I think people definitely have to do what’s best for them in their specific place of privilege," Garcia-Morales said.
SIREN is a non-profit, multilingual organization based in San José that focuses on immigration policy analysis and advocacy, community education, legal services, civic engagement and more, according to the organization’s website.
Garcia-Morales said it’s important for people to weigh the risks that come with speaking out.
Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States without a legal status and were raised here for most of their lives, according to the National Immigration Forum.
DACA was established in 2012 under President Barack Obama’s administration and provides temporary, renewable two-year protection from deportation and work authorization to eligible individuals brought to the U.S. as children, according to the January 21 Akerman lawfirm webpage.
Courts continue to restrict new applications, while others are considering the program’s constitutionality altogether, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Ana Navarrete, program director of the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center at San José State, said there are constant changes to the rulings that could happen anywhere.
The UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center offers various forms of support and resources to undocumented students, according to its website.
“Know your rights, just because things are changing so rapidly and depending on what your situation is, maybe the country that you’re coming from and the immigration issues that impact nationals of those countries, those cases look very different,” Navarrete said.
On Jan. 17, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DACA was improperly implemented and conflicted with federal immigration laws. However, the court allowed existing DACA recipients to maintain and renew their status, including work authorization, while the case proceeds through the legal system, according to a March 21 National Immigration Law Center article.
Navarrete said students should make informed choices when participating in public demonstrations and that there are many forms of protesting.
“I think that’s a very important thing to highlight the role that students and allies have played in shaping immigration policy and also state policy,” Navarrete said. “We have to remind ourselves that even though these things are happening at the national level, in California, we have a set of policies that have given us that additional protection from whatever is happening at the federal level.”
On Feb. 3, residents of San José took part in the “Day Without an Immigrant” demonstration to highlight the importance and contributions of the immigrant community to the country, according to a Feb. 3 article from NBC Bay Area.
As of March 31, 2023, there were 579,000 active DACA recipients. Since court rulings have blocked new applicants from joining, the number of participants is expected to decline, according to the Migration Policy Institute webpage.
“Focus on your studies,” Navarrete said. “If there’s something this government cannot take away from you, it's your education.”
