I came to the United States as a refugee from Sudan more than two decades ago and married a white Caucasian man with whom I have two beautiful boys, aged nine and 11. I also have a younger sister who immigrated to California and has two children who are American by birthright as well. We are part of the great story of immigration that has made America a unique and important country for centuries.
Yet when people hear the word “immigrants,” today they often think of illegal, criminal, undocumented — and harmful — people. And the more this attitude persists, the more people’s prejudice can be damaging and even life-threatening to those living among us, citizens and non-citizens alike.
Since President Donald Trump took office last month, thousands of immigrants nationwide have been detained and many of them deported to their home countries, shocking many residents-including college students like myself who feel unease about the anti-immigrant moves being made by the administration.
One Diablo Valley College student named Eilidh Kilpatrick, whose mother came to the U.S as an immigrant from Great Britain more than two decades ago, said she is in disbelief watching the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is cracking down. “ICE [is] going after immigrants, inflicting fear and treating them like scapegoats,” Kilpatrick said, calling the wave of arrests and deportations “inhumane.”
She added that she wonders if there is really such a thing anymore as the “land of the free, and the land of opportunity, in America.”
If she had the power to change immigration laws, Kilpatick said, rather than detaining and deporting people, she “would focus more on eliminating drug dealing, [which] is one of the ongoing problems, and making way for immigrants to get their documents.”
Another student at DVC, Austin Maces, said the new administration has come in with force that is doing nothing but “destroying families [through] separation, detention and deportation.”
Maces, 21, who is preparing for a mechanical engineering career, said he was shocked “in the era of the 20th century [that] this is still happening in the United States of America, [where] ICE is going door to door busting immigrants,” something he never thought possible.
“Labeling people like that jeopardizes their lives, and is life-threatening,” he said.
“President Donald Trump is now abusing his power, isolating people, and those stereotypes [against immigrants] are promoting harm and damaging American society.”
But not everyone feels as disturbed by the administration’s actions. DVC campus recruiter Lydiya Vivas expressed support for the government’s current hard-line position against illegal immigrants living in the country, saying “there are certain individuals that are not doing things the right way, [and] they deserve to be punished.”
Vivas said criminals should be held accountable for their actions, and feels the influx of illegal immigrants in recent years has been at the root of the inflation crisis.
“I am originally from Florida and have witnessed a lot of wrongdoing, things done by illegal immigrants,” Vivas said, acknowledging, “I am very conservative.”
“People will do anything for money, and [if] there is something [in America] that can potentially give them the way of finding the resource to provide for their family, then they will come and stay illegally in the country,” she added.
Yet another DVC student, Sirena Saldivar, said it is completely “unethical that ICE [is] going after people who are uneducated, or unaware of their rights like immigrants.”
“ICE are causing a lot of fear within the community and because of that, so many people are not able to do basic things like go to the grocery store, down the street to get food, or go to work, and that is affecting American employment as well,” Saldivar said.
“But this effect is not going to harm immigrants only,” she added, noting the broader impacts of uprooting workers. “Families and communities are being destroyed and that essentially will hurt everybody in the United States.”
She said she has many friends with undocumented parents “who now fear deportation and separation from their loved ones, and has gotten involved on a local level to try and support immigrants at risk.”
“I am part of the Dreamers Alliance here at DVC which supports undocumented [people] like the Latin community, but I feel like we commonly miss the Asians, Africans, and other undocumented communities which are involved too,” said Saldivar.
Saldivar added that in just a few weeks in office, “President Trump has already destroyed so much through his actions. Everything people have built [their hopes] up on was thrown away, and that is very upsetting.”