Post-college anxieties for undocumented students
After a day of covering sports as a freelance journalist and helping her mom with her business, Bella Vega Victoriano still finds herself struggling to secure a full-time job of her own. As an undocumented college graduate, Vega is forced to navigate through a tough job market, while also worrying about her status.
Undocumented graduates face more obstacles to overcome than other graduates due to their status. They deal with a tough job market as their status is questioned by employers and increased scrutiny is applied by the United States government under the Trump administration.
California has the largest number of undocumented students enrolled in higher education, with the city of Los Angeles having the largest student population. Approximately 510,000 undocumented students are enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities; of these, 144,150 are estimated to hold or be eligible for DACA, a program aimed at offering undocumented immigrants protection from deportation. This data emphasizes a significant number of students without protection from deportation, and an abundance of risk that comes with obtaining a college degree and working in the country.
According to a 2025 report by the Higher ED Immigration Portal, California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois remain the top five states when it comes to undocumented student enrollment. In Los Angeles alone, the city is home to three million immigrants, according to USC Dornsife.
The Trump administration has promised mass deportations this year, causing undocumented students to rethink their careers. Vega was in the middle of the turmoil when she graduated from California State University, Northridge. However, she asserts that she is not frightened by the prospect of her life changing. She is determined in the continuation of chasing her goals, no matter what happens.
“I am a woman, like that I think 10 steps ahead. Like, I, just because I get deported doesn’t mean that my life is going to end there, right?” Vega said. “Like, I would eventually move to, like, a city, maybe go to a university there, study journalism again if I have to, you know, like, so like my life would continue. Obviously, I want to stay here, but, no, my career goals haven’t changed.”
While at CSUN, many students have professors willing to help and who can empathize with their situations. Eduard Cauich is one of many professors available. Cauich is a journalism professor at CSUN as well as an alumnus of the university. He is also an immigrant himself, coming to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 13, which he feels helps him be able to relate to undocumented and mixed-status students’ struggles.
“For me, it’s personal because, like obviously, I’m Mexican and I have Mexican parents…but I have a lot of friends who are undocumented, and I see that they’re suffering, and so that’s why I empathize a lot with students,” Cauich said.
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Cauich has mandatory one-on-one meetings with his students, which is where he finds that students open up about their status and anxieties. Many students who are close to graduation express frustration at not being able to find a job, to which Cauich tells them to be calm.
“It’s like the times have changed. I basically tell them to be patient. I know that they want to work in journalism, and sometimes, and I’m telling you from experience, I know really, really good journalists who are undocumented, can’t get a job at ESPN or at LA Times or a big outlet. So they get really frustrated. So I tell them to be patient and that if they keep working in the business and that an opportunity is going to come out.” Cauich said.
The fear students have is very prevalent, making many students not reach out to staff and or faculty. Undocumented students tend to be more inclined to open up towards those of a similar background, despite the good intentions of faculty.
An undocumented CSUN alumna, Miriam Frutos Rodriguez’s college journey shifted significantly when she openly shared her immigration status in a class discussion, which freed her of the burden of that silence.
“You’re not supposed to be ashamed … that was something that I thought for a really long time. I felt shameful of my status, and that was really, like, the biggest turning point in my college education.”
At CSUN, undocumented and mixed-status students can find many resources at the Dreamers, Resources, Empowerment, Advocacy and Mentorship (DREAM) center. Karen Castillo, a supervisor at the center, started as a student assistant and immediately felt the impact she had on others. She recognizes the struggles upcoming graduates face, and shares that she also experienced a lot of the same fears.
“I just want them to know that they’re going to make it, right?” Castillo said. “And I think just having the understanding that they’re going to be, like, kicking and screaming, you know, in the process because it’s frustrating and it shouldn’t be like this, right? But kind of having that, like, acceptance and just knowing that it’ll work out.”
Castillo asserts that many students do not know about the DREAM center until their final years of college. She urges students to utilize the center’s resources as it could relieve stress caused by recent ICE raids, which increased in Los Angeles during the summer. The center hosts educational workshops for those who want to better understand the undocumented community, as well as offering guidance on navigating life after college.
Conditions for immigrant students were not always as troubling as they are in 2025. CSUN alumna Cintia Gonzalez came to Los Angeles in 1984 as an asylee from Nicaragua and was able to get a green card during her time there. She reflects on the changes in public attitude towards the issue of status that occurred since her time in college.
“Then, nobody ever asked ‘You know, are you an asylee or …?’” Gonzalez said. “They just accepted you, you know, for who you were. We were not expecting anything from the government … we were just happy with being safe. Now people expect more … we knew that we had to work hard to get anything.”
Undocumented students face many challenges post-graduation, from job market barriers to immigration uncertainties. Many, like Victoriano, continue pursuing their goals with determination and resilience. Support systems like DREAM Centers offer valuable resources to undocumented students. But policy changes and fears of deportation make things difficult.
Written by: Ahmari Rudolph, Audrey De Laura, Johann Meyer and Val Galstyan
