pau l wellm an photos
cc o v e r s T oorryy
Schools Expanding ‘Safe Zones’ S.B. Unified, UCSB, SBCC All Taking Steps to Protect Students by Keith Hamm
W SUCCESS STORIES: UCSB psychology and sociology major Mario (pictured above), who asked to be identified by his first name only, is enrolled in DACA. He said his generation was more open about their undocumented status because they were mentored by those like Rene Garcia Hernandez (pictured below).
Students on Tenterhooks Their Futures and the DACA Program Hang in the Balance by Kelsey Brugger
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or Rene Garcia Hernandez, the Trump presidency feels like the “security blanket has been stripped off.” An undocumented 25-year-old who moved to Santa Barbara from Mexico at age 2, Garcia Hernandez is now enrolled in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Northridge and now works at Santa Barbara Junior High School. DACA is the policy President Obama initiated by executive order that authorizes young immigrants to work without fearing deportation. Minors in the country for five years who moved here before age 16 are eligible. For those who meet the criteria, they must reapply every two years. The program could be repealed by the stroke of a pen. “If that DACA program is revoked, all of our students who benefit from it would have their ability to work jeopardized,” said Maritza MejiaWilson, who is a founding member of Adsum, a Santa Barbara nonprofit that has been serving undocumented students since 2010. “That is really frightening.” But Mejia-Wilson noted that recently introduced bipartisan legislation known as the BRIDGE Act, which stands for Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream of Growing our Economy, would temporarily shield young immigrants from deportation and allow those eligible for DACA to be legally employed. California has additional laws in place such as the state’s DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which allows undocumented college students to apply for state financial aid. Though Trump said on the campaign trail he would repeal DACA, MejiaWilson asked, “What would that do to our economy?” Nationwide, more than 750,000 people in many sectors are enrolled in the program. Mejia-Wilson also noted that DACA gives the federal government access to participants’ fingerprints and personal
information. “We are advising students who have not applied to wait to see if there is any change. All they are doing is outing themselves and making all of their data accessible.” “It’s very tough,” said Garcia Hernandez. He grew up sharing a bedroom with his brother and his mom on the Eastside. He explained he was born in the generation that did not talk much about immigration status. He didn’t discover he did not have papers until his mom told him in junior high school he couldn’t go on a school field trip to
Washington, D.C. He was deflated; he had never really traveled. In the last decade or so, he was among those who started to fight for rights for undocumented students. After he was accepted into DACA, Garcia Hernandez felt he “just won a million bucks.” “I felt comfortable,” he said. “The first thing I did was smile and start learning how to drive.” The program allowed him to get a license and get a job — “as a matter of fact, five,” he said — which paid his college tuition. “It allowed me to feel as if I were really part of this country.” Garcia Hernandez said he now realizes that security blanket was never “that nice coat we thought it was. It is just a very thin blanket sheltering me right now.”Asked if he was worried about a Trump presidency, he n said,“I’m scared; I’m not fearful.”
ith post-November 8 tension and
confusion poised to come to a head on Inauguration Day, campuses across Santa Barbara — from elementary schools to institutes of higher learning — have already set in place school ground locations dedicated to the quiet safety of its most vulnerable students. Santa Barbara Unified School District’s Board of Trustees spearheaded a resolution on December 13 to “welcome and support children from all backgrounds, including those from undocumented families” and to “keep immigration authorities off our campuses to the fullest extent provided by law.” At the University of California level, the pressure’s real, said third-year Film and Media Studies major Le Tang with UCSB’s Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity. “But since the election, it feels like we’ve been more fired up. And we’ve definitely been seeing more support.” Much of that support has come in the form of more square footage dedicated to so-called “safe zones,” from outdoor public spaces to classrooms and lecture halls, and by professors offering up their office hours. Drop-in safe zones have also opened up at the Pardall Center in Isla Vista, which provides study space, legal resources, and a home for the tenants union, among other services funded by UCSB’s 23,400 students. On November 9, in the midst of campuswide disillusionment, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn released a statement with a list of newly opened dropin safe spaces and the university hotline for students who “have witnessed or … have been a target of a hate- or bias-motivated incident.” At the community college level, response from the very top of its governing board, headquartered in Sacramento, has informed any established or pending action at Santa Barbara City College. In December, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, led by newly appointed Chancellor Eloy Oakley, vowed to support all of its 2.1 million students, mincing
few words in its guidance of the system’s 113 campuses in outlining the following strategies: “District police departments should not detain, question or arrest any individual solely on the basis of (suspected) undocumented immigration status; Districts should not cooperate with any federal effort to create a registry … based on religion, national origin, race or sexual orientation; [and] no confidential student records should be released without a judicial warrant, subpoena or court order.” The issue hits close to home for SBCC President Anthony Beebe, whose father was born in the Philippines and brought to the states when he was 12. “We are a nation of immigrants, with some of us getting here sooner than others,” Beebe said. “Undocumented youth, brought to this country under the age of 16 years, are among the most vulnerable populations we have in our society. They are individuals who deserve special discretion, grace, and protection, as their status here is not of their making.” SBCC’s seven-member Board of Trustees has formed an ad hoc committee to explore campus-specific language of that nature. And in the meantime, Luis Giraldo, PhD, the school’s director of equality, diversity, and cultural competency, has hosted get-togethers at the Winslow Maxwell Overlook as “an open, inclusive, supportive environment for students,” according to Communications Director Luz Reyes-Martin. She said the lunchtime gatherings have attracted undocumented students, single moms, and students coping with mental illness. “It’s hard to tell what will happen [after Trump assumes office],” Reyes-Martin said. “We certainly stand behind Chancellor Oakley. As we look to his office to see what’s coming from the top, we’ll continue to reach out to students.” She added that there have been no arrests or reports of vandalism, nor any significant uptick of related on-campus conflicts. “What’s not uncommon are very high emotions, mostly because of uncertainty,” she said. “What will this lead to?” n
HEAR, HEAR! Loud applause greeted the reading of the school district’s safe campus resolution. CONTINUED independent.com
JANUARY 19, 2017
THE INDEPENDENt
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