Colleges Warning Undocumented Students Against Traveling Abroad Under Trump
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DAVIS (CBS13) – Undocumented California students are being warned by their universities to not travel abroad when Donald Trump is sworn into office.
"There are always worries. All the time constantly as an undocumented person," said Roy who is a graduate student at UC Davis.
Roy has been in the U.S. since he was 7 years old, taking advantage of his education and taking great pride in this nation.
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"It's definitely a wonderful thing to be an American and anyone who says otherwise is wrong," he adds, "I've been here for 23 years. I am as American as you are."
But still, the reality is he's undocumented, which is why he chose to only provide his first name.
"I'm more open than other people because I have that sense of safety, but even then that's just an illusion. In a few months, that could be down the drain and I would have no idea what to do," Roy said.
With Donald Trump's win on Nov. 8, that fear increased. That's because Mr. Trump said on the campaign trail that he would overturn the DACA, which protects people like Roy whose parents brought him to the U.S. as a child.
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The UC system took the unprecedented step of warning its undocumented students not to leave the country and if you are out of the country, come home before Trump takes office.
"We can listen to some of the things he said in the Trump campaign, but we really won't know what's going to happen with the program until he's in office," said Rachel Ray, a managing attorney at UC Davis.
She believes many undocumented students have reasonable concerns.
"Some of what we are able to do is educate people on their rights. That only brings so much relief. It's still a high anxiety time," she said.
What's more, when Roy applied for the DACA, he turned over a mountain of personal information to immigration. His dreams are now turning to fears, the feds would know exactly where to find him.
"Ultimately what would end up happening is that I would have to go back to the Philippines, to a country that I don't know," Roy said.
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Donald Trump said in an interview with Time magazine, "We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud."