The risk of being undocumented in the United States has always been in the mind of Mariana, a 22 -year -old college student in Massachusetts, long before Donald Trump became president.
“There has always been a present danger. Now it is a little more intense, but hey, it is nothing that we are not used to,” he said, with its dark characteristics profiled with a bright blue and a flower necklace with the rainbow accounts.
Mariana agreed to meet with Masslive at her university. Masslive does not use your real name or identify your university for fear of being deported.
Mariana and his family arrived in the United States when he was two years ago, about 20 years ago. He said it was to give him a better future and education, he said.
However, he lives in constant uncertainty. The customs control and immigration service (ice, acronym in English) could arrest it at any time. Although this does not happen, you will need to find out how to get a job without legal state when you graduate.
Fear of deportation has only increased for many residents without documentation due to a series of Trump federal actions, which he promised during his campaign to deport a million immigrants this year.
People do not realize that the United States is even more secure to return to Mexico, where they said that several members of his family have been stolen.
“My mother says she feels much more secure than in Mexico,” Mariana said. “There you have to be a little alert every day but not here.”
“A plate of cockroaches”
Mariana has only one memory of Mexico: when they left her in the nursery and hated every second. He does not remember anything about his trip to the United States.
Mariana used to be angry with her parents for having taken the United States as her grandmother and other relatives remained in Mexico. It felt unwanted in the country due to the growing rhetoric against residents without documentation, to “deport them all.”
“I always tell my parents that I almost feel like we were a plate of cockroaches or something, because they try to get rid of us,” he said.
Mariana said that the Trump administration has actively tried to “step on” or harm residents without documentation.
But the Democrats have not been of great help to their family, he said.
“Democrats have always said that they will help us and that immigrants are one of their priorities and we do not see that nothing will change,” he said.
Liz Sweet, executive director of the immigrant Massachusetts and the refugee defense coalition, coincided. The only program that has been useful for people without documentation in recent years has been the policy of action deferred for the arrivals of children (DACA) of 2012. This allows some people to arrive in the United States of the children without legal state, are temporarily protected from deportation and are eligible for a work permit.
The program was expected to be completed in 2017, but a series of court actions allowed it to continue, although it closed the admission to the new applicants.
Mariana is not registered in Daca. At the age of 15, during Trump’s first government, he was advised not to request Daca until Joe Biden took the position. He submitted his application by 2021, but was informed that the deadline to request -the already closed.
“I remember it was very, very annoying because he had a friend who sent him a week earlier and was accepted,” Mariana said.
Federal actions under Trump
Since Trump took over, there have been a number of actions against higher education, even against immigrants, international students and students without documentation.
“They have been really drastic changes to almost all categories of immigrants. But also the rhythm of the change and speed with which new policies and decisions are being implemented has been quite overwhelming, even for those who have been doing this job for a long time,” said Sweet.
Sweet pointed out several actions that affect students without documentation, including the new directives of the National Security Department where university campuses would no longer be protected from raids.
The ICE and the Internal Tax Service also reached an agreement in April to share information about taxpayers on unmatched suspicious immigrants.
Trump also signed an executive order on April 28 aimed at non -eligible non -documented students who receive the state registration. About half of the country allows students without documentation to pay state enrollment by registering in the public universities of their state, according to the Higher Education Immigration Portal. Massachusetts began applying this practice by 2023.
The Trump administration also said on May 5 that it would offer illegal immigrants $ 1,000 to leave the United States and return to their country of origin.
“It really seems that there is some intention in all these policy changes in this administration to promote some people without documentation simply choose to leave the country because it is very difficult to live here and browse all these changes,” said Sweet.
The ice has pointed to the students
The danger of deportation has been extended to the students, both undocumented and with legal status.
In April, thousands of students from all over the country were notified that their student visas and/or their legal status through the database of the student information system and exchange visitors (SEVs, acronym in English) had been revoked.
The status of international student visas is monitored through the Sevi database. A legal state is allowed by a foreign student to remain in the United States, while a student visa allows a person to study in the country.
In response, more than 100 demands were filed and more than 50 ordered Trump to temporarily undo the actions.
People close to Mariana often do not understand the complexity of being undocumented. Without authorization to work in the United States, she and her family cannot have a Social Security number, which is usually necessary to open a bank account and apply for a job.
Most of their family cannot receive food or social benefits, such as the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, because these programs are only offered to the citizens of the United States.
It was not until the summer of 2023 in Massachusetts that residents without documentation could get their driver’s license.
“Many people have no idea what we happen or the obstacles we have.
Although he tries not to allow himself to think of his future plans, he cannot help but dream of being an illustrator. When he graduated from college, he hopes that barriers to work as a change without documentation.
“I feel like I don’t have as much mobility as other north -Americans in this country. So a part of me has always thought,” What is useful if I can’t get a good career? As much as study, I still have no formal work in this country, “said Mariana.
“But I could try it and I hope that when I graduated, there is a change,” he said.
Translated by Damaris Pérez Pizarro