USC has one of the highest international enrollments in the country, with students from outside of the United States making up 17% of its fall 2024 incoming class. Most of these students are unable to vote in the 2024 presidential election. With policies surrounding immigration, education and work opportunities on the line tomorrow, many international students have no choice but to wait and observe. Annenberg Media spoke with some of them before election day.
Valeria Mendez, a freshman architecture major, is from Barranquilla, Colombia. Though Mendez is eligible to vote in Colombia, she doesn’t have the same opportunity in the U.S. after moving here two months ago.
“If I could vote, I would choose the candidate that would help me better create a life here,” she said. “But I haven’t had time to get into the craziness of U.S. politics.”
For some, like Ola Kalu, a junior from London majoring in math and economics, the ability to separate themselves from U.S. politics is a privilege. Aside from immigration, Kalu said she is especially worried about abortion and transgender policies this November.
“Being an immigrant, being a person of color, being queer, being a woman,” she said, “there are policies where these bodies are more policed than they should be, and that’s a larger thing that adds to the fear element of it all.”
Kalu said that her faith in her peers’ votes has dwindled.
“As an international student, there have been times where I’ve had to dispel incorrect information that has spread about policies,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think I have the most trust [in voters].”
Franco Grottola, a junior business administration major and Buenos Aires native, said he is worried about how changing immigration policies will affect other international students this election cycle. He has not applied for citizenship yet, but holds a green card.
“Most of my friends don’t [have green cards], and they’re scared they’ll get deported,” he said. “But they’re great people for this country.”
Grottola said he knows both American and international students at USC who are eligible to vote but have not registered.
“They’re too lazy,” he said. “It makes me feel like we aren’t going in the right direction.”
Zayane El Solh, a sophomore communications major, shared a similar fear regarding international relations after the election. She said she worries that geopolitics will impact her family back home in Lebanon.
“With the current war unfolding in the Middle East, I feel like the U.S. has such a vital say in what is happening,” she said.
Thiago Barata, a sophomore computer science and engineering major, is originally from Brazil, but grew up between Switzerland and Portugal. He said he feels indifferent about either candidate, but he still thinks people should vote if they are eligible, despite being more focused on his long-term plans.
“I’m not staying in the U.S.,” he said. “I’m moving back to Europe.”
Some international students hold U.S. citizenship. Isabella Gardiner, a freshman English and history major, has dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K. She said for her and her international friends, the election is at the forefront of their minds.
“I think a lot of Europeans look down on American politics because it’s uncivilized and because it’s so contentious and because it seems like we can never get anything done, but also recognize that it’s on a world stage,” she said.
To Gardiner, the impact of U.S. politics stretches far beyond our borders.
“It has much more of an impact on the world than whoever would be the prime minister in the U.K. or anywhere else in Europe. And I think that people begrudgingly accept that,” she said.
She added that she thinks the political landscape of a person’s homeland affects the way they view American politics.
“U.K. politics, generally, are more left-leaning than they are in the United States,” she said. “However, international students from countries where religion plays a much stronger role in public life encompass much more conservative tendencies, which I think people kind of overlook in the States.”
Originally from Long Island, New York, sophomore health and human sciences major Lucas Sowder-Yuson is a U.S. national and was able to vote. He attended the American School in Tokyo, Japan for six years and said he sang the national anthem before every sports game.
Yuson planned not to vote because he felt uninformed, but later decided to cast his ballot.
“I have two dads,” he said. “It’s only fair to support the people around you.”
Marisabella Diaz, a sophomore form Puerto Rico majoring in theatre, said she also feels it’s important to support one’s community in voting. For Diaz, that means standing in solidarity with Puerto Ricans who “have no authority, no right, no power in the election, simply because [they] don’t have the right to vote.”
“Puerto Ricans are the most powerless this time,” she said.
In reference to the recent comments made at a Trump rally in New York City by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage,” Diaz said, “it’s very discomforting to think that there’s a possibility that we could be led by someone that considers [Puerto Ricans] as inferior, and that we have no say to stop it.”
Jacqueline Rutherfurd, a sophomore studying politics, philosophy and law, said her views exist outside of the American two-party system. She is from Jakarta, Indonesia and holds dual citizenship.
“Had I been able to vote, it would have been in either New York or California,” she said. “I probably would have voted independent, or done a write-in.”
She said she understands her non-American friends’ frustration and sympathizes with their feelings of hopelessness, even as someone who can vote.
“I feel like it’s not even necessarily about being able to vote or not,” she said. “It’s about that feeling of being so small here in America, it feels like the decision is being made for you all the time.”
“There’s a commonality between people who can and can’t vote,” she continued, “and that commonality is the feeling of hopelessness in the U.S.”