While students danced to Latin beats at a weekly paso a paso dance workshop upstairs at the La Casa Latino Cultural Center, Willy Palomo, leader of the UndocuHoosier Alliance, was preparing for another meeting downstairs.
The group met Monday to update the alliance’s missions for the coming months and semester, Palomo said.
This meeting, along with the alliance’s recent work, comes in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and his promises during his campaign to remove President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood program. DACA allows the children of undocumented immigrants work permits.
The removal of DACA prevents DACAmented students from working and makes the threat of deportation really eminent, Palomo said.
“Undocumented students are not so much in the shadows but in the spotlight for the government,” Palomo said.
UndocuHoosier Alliance member Gionni Ponce said without the jobs students and other DACAmented people will no longer have money to pay rent, buy food and potentially pay for immigration lawyers.
Palomo said past estimates have said there are anywhere from 20 to 35 DACAmented students at IU and more at Ivy Tech schools and elsewhere in the state. However, he said it is hard to come up with a precise number.
Palomo and the UndocuHoosier Alliance have begun working on fundraising efforts to create a fund for undocumented IU students should they lose their jobs or face deportation and need legal assistance.
The UndocuHoosier Alliance has also worked with Students Against State Violence to work to designate IU as a sanctuary campus. A sanctuary campus, similar to a sanctuary city, would support the education of undocumented students and protect them from deportation, Palomo said.
Palomo and the alliance are currently working with administration to make IU a sanctuary campus.
“To a certain extent, it is just symbolic, but it is there to defend the most vulnerable,” Palomo said.
Both Palomo and Ponce said creating sanctuary campuses is a trend that is popping up around the country.
“There is a movement across nation for campuses to do the same, to not allow immigration onto their campuses, to not allow people to be picked up and shipped out,” Ponce said.
Ponce said if DACA is removed, everyday living will become much harder for DACAmented students and people.
“If DACA is canceled for those people, very simple things such as driving, flying and working become significantly more difficult,” Ponce said.
Ponce knows personally the challenges undocumented people face. Ponce said she has family and friends that are undocumented.
“I have many family members and lots of friends across racial lines from different countries,” Ponce said. “It doesn’t just affect Latinos. It affects many people from all over the world. Latinos are the most visible and often the ones anti-immigrant rhetoric is against.”
Palomo said he also has a lot of people close to him who are undocumented.
While he feels fear for family, he said now is about trying to find the best way to support people you love.
