“The undocumented community is among America's most vulnerable,” said Nathanial Sweet of the USF College Democrats. “In the workplace they are far too often facing exploitation, wage theft and abuse. In the towns and cities where they live, access to social and medical services are far too often vanishingly small. When they are victims of a crime, they are afraid to report it to the police because they then might not be able to come home the next evening. As a result, the life of an undocumented immigrant is far too often filled with fear and uncertainty.”
Given the uncertainty surrounding their future residency, it came as no surprise that no current undocumented immigrants spoke personally of the trouble they have faced as they and their families made a living in America. Instead, members of UndocUnited USF, who organized the event along with For Florida's Future, took turns reading stories given to them by immigrants.
The stories presented shared a similar theme, living with a sense of dread over their status or that of a family member as they go about their daily lives, as the threat of deportation looms. Isolation among the people they grew up around manifested in smaller things. like being left out of field trips, until the threat became all too clear once it came time to go to college. While those whose stories were told Tuesday found ways to attend USF, be it through paying international fees or using government programs such as DACA, all are under threat if Trump makes good on his promises.
This poses considerable risk at USF, which is home to 1,400 international students from 139 countries. As CL has written about, a member of USF's student body has already been affected by the Trump's executive orders, when PhD student Mehdi Zeyghami was unable to travel from Iran back to Tampa after the infamous Muslim ban, though he has since been able to return.
USF has taken steps to support undocumented students, offering the USF Status of Latinos Committee Scholarship exclusively for undocumented students and students with undocumented parents, and launching an UndocuAlly program aimed at educating those at the university on the undocumented community.
Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Danielle McDonald was in attendance and read aloud a letter from Dr. Paul Dosal, the Vice President of Student Affairs and Student Success.
“This university is proud that our community takes active roles in engaging in activities that share diversity of ideas, experiences, cultures and beliefs," she read. "As a university, we strive to serve as a model where all can share there perspectives in a civil environment and support community members who apply these same standards in their own expressions. There should be no ambiguity in USF's position on DACA. We are committed to the success of our students, including undocumented students and Dreamers, and we will do all we can within the law to promote their success and education.”
Some such as Samantha May, a senior at USF, felt as though this wasn't enough and that USF should take the step of becoming a sanctuary campus.
“Standing in solidarity with the undocumented community means listening to the needs and desires of the people who are directly impacted," May said. "It means responding when called upon to act. It means leveraging our power as students to call on USF administration to adopt a sanctuary policy, to protect undocumented students, faculty and staff. It is necessary that the USF administration takes concrete action to stand up for students instead of releasing statements."
As solidarity moves to action on this issue, things are unlikely to stay quiet at USF.
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2017.