Dreams on hold: An undocumented senior questions her future
by Jasmin Enriquez Martinez
Britney (granted anonymity) still remembers being a 4-year-old coming to America with her family. She remembers getting into a white van and being forced to sit next to a stranger. She remembers trying not to cry, but crying anyway.
Now, 23, she often thinks of the two nights she spent in a detention center as a child. The fear of this possibility for her again resurfaces as her friends are making plans for post-graduation life.
Britney is an undocumented student from Mexico and a senior communication major at Trevecca. She never imagined that she would make it this far due to her status. However, she’s now concerned about her future as she transitions out of college.
“I think after this past presidential election, I really have been struggling on what's next for me after college and, you know, did I make the right decision on the major and the minor and if I made the right decision on even coming to school here first or if I should have tried to get my any type of like visa or work permit or anything like that first,” said Britney.
Britney is one of the many undocumented students pursuing higher education. In the U.S., approximately 510,000 are enrolled in colleges and universities. About 144,150 hold or are eligible for DACA, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.
Trevecca President Dan Boone said that while the university works with a nonprofit to help students get financial aid to attend college, the university has no record of which students are undocumented.
Britney has been at Trevecca as a recipient of an Equal Chance for Education scholarship. ECE is an organization that awards scholarships to undocumented students to support their higher education, according to its website.
Although she is close to graduating, without proper citizenship, she’s unable to apply for jobs.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 makes it unlawful for employers to hire undocumented immigrants without verifying their work status.
“That feeling of, hey, you have a whole entire degree, but you can't use it makes me mad,” Britney said. “And it also makes me pretty upset because I feel like I wasted four years of my life just not being able to do anything right after it.”
She’s tried to speak to a lawyer about her situation, but was told there's nothing they can do for her at the moment.
According to the Nashville Banner, immigration attorneys are struggling to advise their clients.
"Immigration status is temporary, but education is forever"
-Betsy Martinez
Britney dreams about becoming a teacher one day, just like her elementary ESL teacher, the reason she got accepted into Trevecca.
“She made a letter of recommendation to the school and also to ECE, the scholarship, to get me in here,” she said. “She's the real reason why I really want to become a teacher, to also help kids like me know that someone’s looking out for them.”
Betsy Martinez, program director at ECE, guides students like Britney through their transition out of higher education.
Martinez works with students of all immigration backgrounds and says there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to helping them.
“We work with students to try to support them with the information that they need in order to make the choices that they need to make in order to graduate and to move forward in their profession,” said Martinez.
She often hears frustration and fear about whether they will get a job and whether they are wasting their time.
Despite their uncertainties, Martinez encourages students to invest in themselves because getting an education benefits them and their communities.
“Immigration status is temporary, but education is forever,” said Martinez.
Britney’s conversations with Martinez are about her future, about one day getting a job, as well as easing her out of college.
“She'll randomly just text me out of nowhere asking me how my day has been or how my semester's going, and I really just get to rant with her and talk about if I'm feeling stressed or if I'm having a big assignment that I don't understand,” said Britney. “We'll talk like we're friends.”
Martinez makes an effort to find speakers of immigrant backgrounds to speak at webinars and panels for ECE recipients.
“My students are the most inspirational people that I know. They are. resilient, they are strong, they are committed,” said Martinez. “They overcome so many obstacles on a daily basis just to be able to pursue their education.”