For Undocumented Students, Trump Adds New Risk to Study Abroad
By: Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education ~ December 5, 2016
It's been 20 years since Sheila Salinas saw her maternal grandparents, or the tiny concrete home on a dusty unpaved road where she grew up in Chalco, Mexico.
As an undocumented student finishing her studies at California State University at Long Beach, she is excited but apprehensive about her planned educational trip to her home country.
That's because study-abroad options may soon be cut off for her and thousands of other students who have benefited from a policy that gives undocumented students temporary protection from deportation.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that has allowed more than 740,000 immigrants to study and work in this country on two-year renewable terms.
DACA students, as they're known, can also study abroad and return lawfully if they receive "Advance Parole" from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. But if DACA is ended, the status that allows them back into the United States might expire as well, immigration experts fear.
As a result, universities and advocacy groups nationwide are warning these students to return to the United States by January 19, the day before Mr. Trump takes office.
They're also advising them not to study abroad next semester as long as the status of DACA remains in limbo.
The incoming administration's threat to eliminate DACA comes as a blow to Ms. Salinas, 26, and the administrator who arranged the trip she's taking later this month.
"I'm nervous, but there's no way I was going to cancel it," she said. "This may be the last chance I get to see my grandparents."
'The Invisible' Children: U.S.-Citizen Minors, Now Struggling In Mexico with Their Deported Parents
By: Claudio Sanchez, NPR ~ November 13, 2016
Children and teenagers of Mexican descent make up one of the fastest-growing populations in the nation's public schools.
That's a well-known statistic, but less known is that,in the last eight years, nearly 500,000 of these children have returned to Mexico with their families. Nine out of 10 are U.S. citizens because they were born in the U.S. That's according to Mexican and U.S. government figures compiled by researchers with the University of California system, and the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
"It is a national shame that the number of U.S.-citizen children exiled in Mexico today is about 800,000--an equivalent or greater number than all U.S. citizens that live in retirement, as students, as corporate employees, and with expired visas as "illegal aliens" in Mexico without the persecution that Mexicans face in the U.S." --Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos
These families have returned to Mexico because of the economic downturn in the U.S. Many others were deported and had no choice but to take their U.S.-born children with them.
Whatever the reason, Mexican schools have been caught off guard, totally unprepared to receive them. Researchers with the U-C Mexico Initiative say these students will in all likelihood travel back and forth between both countries so schools on both sides of the border need to work together to make sure they get a quality education.
In Mexican schools, the single-biggest problem these U.S.-born children and teenagers face is that they can't read or write in Spanish. In the U.S. schools they previously attended, many lacked the academic English they needed to do well. They're often labeled "English Language Learners" or ELLs...
Presidentes de universidades se convierten en la voz de los Dreamers ante Donald Trump
Un grupo de funcionarios universitarios enviaron una carta al president electo con una petición bien específica pidiéndole que continué el programa de acción diferida para los jóvenes soñadores.
El Profesor Armando Vázquez habla sobre las propuestas que enemigos de los inmigrantes realizan al Presidente electo Donald Trump.
