College dreams at risk: Immigrant students and FAFSA
Credit: Cal State Fullerton/Flickr
We are witnessing in real time the fears and worries of students from immigrant families become reality under the Trump administration. Worry that if they apply for federal financial aid, they could jeopardize the safety of their parents. Fear that working towards their educational goals could result in Immigration and Customs Enforcement showing up at their families’ homes and detaining them.
Now the college dreams of many California students are in jeopardy as they contemplate how to pursue an affordable higher education because accessing financial aid for college — including the state’s Cal Grants — requires filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a federal form managed by the US Department of Education.
It is estimated that one in five California students comes from a mixed-status family.
The concerns that these students have about sharing their personal information with the federal government through the financial aid application are not unwarranted. While U.S. born students were often told by the federal government their data is secure, their fears have been punctuated by the administration’s recent actions to request data from the IRS and Medicaid to carry out their mass deportation policies against hard-working families, including mixed-status families, in California.
It doesn’t have to be this way. California legislators have an opportunity to uphold the college dreams of all students by supporting Senate Bill 323 (Pérez), ensuring that the California Dream Act Application (CADAA) is available to all students in California who qualify for state financial aid programs, regardless of their federal financial aid eligibility.
Past legislative efforts which established The California Dream Act gave students, regardless of immigration status, access to state financial aid programs like Cal Grants to ensure that the cost of attending college does not deter students from completing their degrees. State leaders then, and now, understood the value of a college education. Through investments that prioritized an educated workforce and economic mobility, California has experienced significant economic growth, making it the fourth largest economy in the world today.
Unfortunately, under the current system, some students who are U.S. citizens but have family members who may not be are caught in limbo. While they could be eligible for federal aid, they understandably don’t want to put their family at risk by filling out the FAFSA. Challenges with the FAFSA are not new to immigrant families, last year alone the updated FAFSA created problems for over 500,000 U.S. citizen students in mixed-status families nationwide due to faulty identity verification process that was gatekeeping the application from students.
Luckily, there is a viable and immediate solution to this conundrum: Allowing all students who are already eligible for state financial aid programs to submit the California Dream Act Application instead of the federal FAFSA.
The CADAA has traditionally been the state financial aid application for undocumented students.
But, for the last two financial aid application cycles, the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) has expanded access to it as an option for students from mixed-status families. These administrative actions were taken to address the challenges US born students were facing with the roll-out of the “Better FAFSA” and ensure they would not forego their college plans because of delays and technical issues with their FAFSA applications.
Nearly 1,000 students, who are FAFSA eligible, have submitted a California Dream Act Application since the commission made this administrative change. However, this is not a permanent policy change. Senate Bill 323 solves this and makes it clear to students and universities that California students have options for how to finance their college education.
The bill in no way prohibits eligible students from applying for federal aid, but it does provide relief to students who are too scared to fill out the FAFSA. Students like Samaria who shared with us her own challenges deciding whether to apply for FAFSA or CADAA.
“As a first generation Mexican American and soon to be the first in my family to attend college, choosing to submit the CADAA instead of the FAFSA was not an easy decision but having the option to make this choice meant everything to us; it was the difference between feeling excluded and finally being seen.”
By not guaranteeing students like Samaria the option to submit the CADDA, we risk losing out on their talent and denying an entire generation of California students the opportunity to achieve the California Dream. Resilient students from all walks of life are counting on state leaders to defend their right to access an affordable college education.
We call on state legislators to champion SB 323 and ensure that every student in California is guaranteed a safe pathway to access the state financial aid that helps them complete their college dreams.
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Feliza Ortiz-Licon is the executive vice president of The Campaign for College Opportunity. Alison De Lucca is the executive director of SoCal CAN. Both are members of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition, a broad-based coalition dedicated to advancing policies that provide undocumented students with the financial aid for which they are eligible.
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