Many undocumented students on campus are feeling uneasy and threatened as the Trump Administration aggressively strengthens policies on immigration.
Resources on campus aren’t always easy to find, according to Diana Cervantes. She’s a senior studying for her Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship in the Business of Cinematic Arts, and also serves as the co-director of the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly, or UTSA.
“I don’t think there’s sufficient accessibility for the resources on campus,” Cervantes said.
USC has a First Generation Plus Center, but Cervantes says that isn’t enough.
“I think it’s necessary to have a designated Dream Center outside of the first-gen center, because it would be more impactful to have a designated space just for undocumented students to form that sense of community and have that safe space,” Cervantes said.
“When you enter the first gen center, there’s a lot of other identities there, and you don’t know if it’s safe to be open about your identity, and other people might have different opinions regarding your status.”
Psychology major Melissa Paz-Flores is the assistant director of the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly. She says many local educational institutions have active Dream Centers for undocumented students.
“Our end goal was really to open a UTRC,” Paz-Flores said. “The undocumented Trojan resource center just came out of the awareness that other schools in the area have those resources already in place. I always emphasized during our meetings that there’s high schools, there’s community colleges that have that, and they might even have way less funding than USC does.”
Katie Hernandez, a USC reporter focusing on Latine issues for Annenberg’s Dimelo desk, says that the success of previous temporary pop-up Dream Centers proves the need.
“It was open twice a week. There were drop-in office hours, and you could talk to professors and just sort of find community,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez hopes that a Dream Center at USC will uplift the voices and needs of undocumented Trojans, if established.
“I hope that student voices are really taken into account, and that it’s not just the administration doing what they think needs to be done and not actually speaking with students,” Hernandez said.
With all the executive orders from Washington surrounding immigration, the future of a Dream Center to support undocumented immigrant students remains uncertain.