When FHS Wellness Specialist and alum ‘14 Alejandra Flores received her acceptance from Arroyo University on a sports partial-scholarship, she truly believed that her days of living in fear were behind her. Although growing up as an undocumented immigrant taught Flores to always look over her shoulder, temporary protections from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA) in 2012 opened up new opportunities, such as moving across the country in search of a better future.

That was until President Donald Trump first came into office in 2017.

“When Trump got elected, that’s the first time we really started hearing realistic threats of getting rid of DACA,” Flores said. “Those threats and that fear got very real, so I decided to leave school, which was devastating, because I worked so hard and I felt like all of my work was for nothing. But instead of just living in that fear, I asked myself, ‘How can I figure out my resources? How can I figure out how to protect myself, my community, my family?’ So, I just started getting very involved with my community and the resources and tools that I had to make sure that I was fighting the fear with something tangible.”

Ultimately Trump’s threats towards DACA during his first term went unfulfilled, allowing Flores to maintain her legal status and stay in the Bay Area. Despite the lack of action against DACA in the first Trump administration, Trump’s rhetoric towards undocumented immigrants in his second term — which began this year — has become noticeably more inflammatory. In his first days in office, he has signed executive orders that attempt to dismantle birthright citizenship to children of noncitizens and reinstated the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. Furthermore, he has specifically impacted schools by prompting the Department of Homeland Security to remove guidance that previously protected schools and religious spaces from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

Spurred by growing hostility nationwide towards undocumented communities, the FUHSD Board of Trustees passed Resolution No. 2425-15 during a board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 14, reaffirming their support and commitment to protecting the safety of undocumented students and staff. Associate Superintendent Trudy Gross explains that district policy ensures that the FUHSD will not assist federal immigration enforcement under current legal jurisdiction.

“Our goal is that school is a safe place — students have a right for that to be a safe place,” Gross said. “We are not voluntarily cooperating unless there are exigent circumstances or something that we’re presented, but we are very clear as to the procedures of anybody who comes onto our campuses.”

Trump’s drive to execute these immigration policies causes many immigrants to fear impending deportation or other serious action, including members of California’s education system. In efforts to mitigate fear caused by Trump’s new policies, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued guidelines to school districts that provide resources to legally protect immigrant communities.

Immigration lawyer Dan Shanfield has a multitude of experience in his field, having had opportunities working with the United Nations Refugee Agency, Human Rights First in New York and the United States State Department.  Through all his cases, the emotional experiences Shanfield has had representing students through the documentation process have impacted him the most. He was especially touched by cases like Flores’s, involving those brought to the U.S. undocumented during their youth and forced to adapt ever since.

“These cases were also heart-wrenching because so many of these youths have so much academic, intellectual and professional promise,” Shanfield said. “They’re all worthy of having an opportunity, having been brought here as children and being essentially American, to live out their potential.”

Flores’ family was one of many drawn to the idyllic American Dream and “the opportunities that America held for her and her brother.” Now, through her position as the FHS Wellness Specialist Flores helps students in the same position as her deal with their undocumented status. At FHS she works on assisting students individually as well as compiling resources and educating teachers on how to approach conversations with undocumented students supportively.

“Thankfully, our district is really proactive about having resources on hand, so it’s more about letting families and staff and schools be aware of what those resources are,” Flores said. “Making sure that staff feel confident about how they can help their students, or who they can reach out to if students or they need help is crucial. Everything starts with making sure that the information you have is accessible to everybody, and language is a huge component of that.”

FUHSD has also made efforts to broaden access to this information district-wide. In an email sent to all FUHSD students and families on Thursday, Jan. 23, Superintendent Graham Clark promoted various state resources for undocumented families, and stated that the district’s “focus remains on providing education and support to every student and family, regardless of immigration status.”

Going forward, Gross says the district will continue to consult local authorities and educational resources on how to approach the evolving situation with sensitivity.

“There are certain guidelines that are coming out of the Department of Education and the Santa Clara County Office of Education,” Gross said. “We will use that guidance to communicate with our principals, our front office staff members and our teachers, because we do know that students are expressing worry to their teachers. We’re taking all that information and then determining the best ways to share that and use that in our practices.”

Shanfield advises the district to be careful that their support, while good intentioned, does not breach the law in favor of aiding people during this contentious time. Rather, he believes that providing greater access to resources like legal clinics for families can help students find stability in a safe and legal way. He personally has seen the success of these clinics before, citing his previous partnership with the San Jose Mexican Consulate, where pro bono lawyers helped students apply for DACA, just as Flores did herself.

“I remember looking at the hundreds and hundreds of students who were waiting in line nervously for the promise of relief,” Shanfield said. “Now, they’re no longer kids. They’re adults. They’re married. They have children. They have work authorization, and they’ve made such a positive impact on the community, their families, their workplace. We just need to keep up this fight to ensure that students going forward can have that same opportunity, and just be legally aggressive in finding solutions for them to not live in the shadows.”

This story was originally published on El Estoque on February 1, 2025.