With the inauguration of President Donald Trump, his administration is entering the first 100 days with a priority to dismantle many of his predecessor’s achievements, with only the Senate filibuster to serve as a check to the Republican majority on a state and national level. With little ability to stop President Trump’s policies at a legislative level, grassroots efforts by organizations will become a significant tool in the fight to prevent many harmful policies from coming to fruition. Since students under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and other undocumented students are among the most vulnerable constituencies under the new administration, student-run national coalitions must form to protect, inform and engage DACA and undocumented students throughout the nation and protect these students from deportation. To achieve these goals, organizations must seek to enact sustainable goals aimed to secure the ability for these students to succeed as students.

Institutions must universally declare support for DACA students. To begin with, nonprofits, state representatives and senators, state Democratic parties and national U.S Representatives must multilaterally and in a bipartisan manner support the protection of DACA and undocumented students on campuses in the United States. This is a priority in cities with a high density of immigrant students such as Boston, Miami, New York or Los Angeles to combat the rising fear associated with deportation many of these students face. This declaration can be shown by lobbying in support of current bipartisan legislation such as The Bridge Act, which was introduced by both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate to grant President Obama’s DACA protections on a legislative level. Bipartisan government groups, organizations and representatives such as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and organizations such as the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and FWD.us are willing to support efforts aimed at the protection of such students. According to my personal experience of speaking with over 200 undocumented high school students with the organization I founded, United Student Immigrants (USI), many DACA students and DREAMers expressed a sense of isolation stemming from a lack of knowledge on the many individuals working to protect them. Understanding and knowing there are individual leaders working to prevent this is extremely comforting.

Additionally, DACA students and local police units must engage in effective dialogue. Police officers in several cities — such as LA, Miami and NYC — are not allowed to legally act as immigration officers and, therefore, cannot deport students for any reason. It must be ensured that we keep these protections through community- and student-led conversations in partnership with law enforcement units. Local university or college chapters of Young Democrats and immigrant supportive clubs are excellent leaders to spark these discussions. Police departments should be eager for these mutually beneficial relations because they can free police to focus on behavior that is truly harming communities. These dialogues aid in humanizing the issue by putting a face to a story and helping the public realize that there are actual people being influenced. The aim of police departments is to protect communities, and in holding forums for these types of conversations, it will show local law enforcement that these individuals belong to a community in which they seek to contribute, not harm. Only a few days ago, the Fraternal Order of the Police, who claims to be “the voice of our nation’s law enforcement,” released a 100-day plan under Trump that supports dismantling DACA, racial profiling of undocumented students and an end to sanctuary campuses. To be effective, we must understand that our message toward law enforcement is failing. These conversations have proven to be effected as outlined by Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing to advance these conservations and innovative solutions.

Universities must also provide legal and financial support to DACA students. Currently, DACA students are eligible for work study grants, as they have a right to obtain work permits under the DACA program. However, with the potential cancellation of DACA under a new administration, these students will become ineligible for the little financial aid that currently exists for them. Universities must commit to supporting these students with additional financial resources and opportunities as has been done by some leading institutions across the nation, such as Tufts University. The best way to lead this effort is through a unified student-run, campus-wide project across the nation. This effort must not only target selective schools but also state and community colleges where far more undocumented students study. This is now extremely crucial because, according to a Jan. 21 Miami Herald article, there is a high likelihood that DACA will be terminated, and many students will be indirectly deported through economic and unfair criminal standards. These unique issues further contribute to the unfair stress brought about by the fear of losing financial aid and wondering if tomorrow is the day one will be deported. While universities are unable to use federal financial aid to assist DACA students, many give them work aid to supplement the already hefty cost of attendance. In addition, universities should expand their private scholarship funds to protect DACA students; they provide a valuable perspective in the form of diversity, independence and unique experiences that will aid the success of any university or academic institution. Since this is a group where only 5 to 10 percent matriculate to a university setting, according to OnlineCollege.org, efforts must be made to improve their matriculation rates. There is a misconception within the undocumented community, as in many other minority groups, that in order to achieve a college education, one must be the valedictorian of his or her class. This narrative is false and damaging; it deters many DACA students from accessing a secondary education, weakening a community academically as higher education becomes a necessity in the 21st century. Most students are willing to work for their education, but without access to work opportunities, they have no way to fund their education.

Furthermore, we must support initiatives that seek to increase civic engagement opportunities among DACA students regarding the political process. Undocumented students are a constituency bloc who may not be able to vote, but they possess the abilities to organize and register thousands to vote for progressive causes. Their daily lives are dependent on political progress; thus, these students should all be engaged in this fight. For many, politics and personal life often merge, but for us as DACA students it is different; the future of our lives depend on the outcomes of these processes. We cannot claim to be apolitical, when our mere ability to remain in this country is a political issue of the highest priority. Progressive immigration reform cannot succeed if those affected by immigration legislation lack the ability to organize and mobilize. Organizations such as FWD.us are crucial in resolving this challenge by assisting immigrant and DACA students with the resources necessary to carry out operations in colleges and universities. We will only be able to persuade others to defend us when we are doing everything within our power to advocate on our own behalf.