Threat of deportation leaves some Fort Worth families wary of submitting FAFSA for college
One afternoon last winter, while her dad was at work, a high school senior in the Fort Worth Independent School District sat her mom down at the kitchen table for a tough conversation.
The girl was getting her college applications and financial aid paperwork together. To complete the process, she needed to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Filling out the form is a major milestone for college-bound high school students across the country. But she also worried about the risk it would bring.
The student was born in the United States, but her parents are undocumented immigrants from Mexico. The Star-Telegram isn’t identifying the student by name because members of her family could be at risk of deportation. At a time when federal immigration officials are ramping up arrests in North Texas and elsewhere, many families like hers worry about what the future holds.
She knew submitting the FAFSA could put her family at even greater risk. The form requires applicants to include identifying information about their parents. But she also knew she couldn’t pay for college without it.
Both her parents gave her the same answer, she said — fill the application out and submit it.
“They said that there’s no point (in) being scared when they already sacrificed so much and did so much to get to the point they are today, and that something like this shouldn’t stop me from reaching any of my goals that I have in life,” she said.
School districts generally don’t track the immigration status of students or their families, making it difficult to tell how many students in mixed-status families have applied for federal financial aid. But college access advocates in North Texas say that many of the families they work with are feeling wary about submitting the form.
Executive orders create uncertainty for undocumented families
In January, hours after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding expedited removal, the process by which immigration authorities can remove certain undocumented immigrants without a hearing. The following day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending a policy of refraining from arresting undocumented people at “sensitive locations,” including schools.
Later that month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched “enhanced targeted operations” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. During the first week, immigration agents detained 84 people of “varying degrees of criminality,” the agency reported.
It’s a change education advocates had been anticipating for months. In late November, the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit that advocates for policies easing the path to college for first-generation students, released guidance advising mixed-status families to make a “considered decision” about filling out a FAFSA or submitting information for a Federal Student Aid ID.
The guidance noted that the 1965 Higher Education Act prohibits government agencies from using data collected from FAFSA filings for anything other than determining student aid eligibility, but said the organization “cannot assure mixed-status students and families that data submitted to the US Department of Education, as part of the FAFSA process, will continue to be protected.”
“(The network) understands the grave ramifications of this guidance and deeply regrets that we feel it is necessary to issue it,” the nonprofit’s leaders wrote.
FWISD student says her parents accepted risk for her future
The Fort Worth ISD student said her parents came to the United States from Puebla, a state in east-central Mexico, about 30 years ago. Growing up, she saw her parents work hard to create opportunities for her and her siblings that they didn’t have themselves.
The student said she never spent much time thinking about her parents’ immigration status when she was younger. Most of her friends came from a similar background, she said, so having family members who lacked legal status didn’t seem unusual.
But during Trump’s first presidential campaign, she heard rhetoric that was aimed at families like hers. During the announcement that kicked off his first campaign in 2015, Trump referred to Mexican migrants as “rapists” who were bringing drugs and crime into the country. At that point, she began to understand that if her parents’ immigration status wasn’t already an issue for her, it would be eventually.
Then, during her senior year, she heard Trump promise sweeping deportations beginning on the first day of his second term. Although college had always been a part of her plans for the future, she wondered whether filling out the FAFSA — and giving the federal government information about her parents in the process — was a wise move.
But her parents saw it differently, she said. They’ve been living in the United States as undocumented immigrants for decades, knowing all along that deportation was a possibility. It’s a fear they’ve learned to cope with, she said. Her mom told her that if they needed to accept increased risk so she could go to college, it was a trade-off they were willing to take.
Redesigned FAFSA caused headaches for mixed-status families
The possibility of mass deportations isn’t the first challenge mixed-status families have faced in dealing with the financial aid application process. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education rolled out a pared-down FAFSA that was supposed to be easier for families to complete. But the rollout was delayed by months, and once the form was released, it was plagued by glitches. Among other problems, the form essentially locked out families in which one or both parents didn’t have a Social Security number. That meant that U.S.-born students with an undocumented parent had no way to apply online.
Rebeca Adorno, interim director of the Texas Christian University College Advising Corps, said she’s heard concerns from family members about filling out the FAFSA — sometimes from parents who are worried about the possibility of deportation, other times from students who are trying to protect their parents.
The College Advising Corps is a project run through TCU’s College of Education that places college advisors at about two dozen high schools in Tarrant County. Those advisors work with low-income, first-generation and underrepresented high schoolers on things like applying for college, navigating financial aid paperwork and figuring out which school is the best fit for them.
When families express concern, the corps’ advisors don’t steer them toward any particular path, Adorno said. They just give them the information they need to make their decisions on their own. But lately, it’s been harder to give reliable information, she said, which doesn’t put families at ease.
For families who decide that filling out the FAFSA is too big a risk, there are limited options, Adorno said. Some sources of money for college, like community scholarships, don’t require that students apply for federal financial aid, but those scholarships are limited. If those options aren’t available, Adorno said those students may have to wait to start college until they’re 24, when they can apply for financial aid as an independent student.
Undocumented parents need to understand risks, rights
Lorena Tule-Romain, co-founder and chief operating officer of the Dallas-based nonprofit ImmSchools, said many of the families the organization works with have expressed the same concern. The organization advocates for access to education for students in immigrant families.
Last year, much of the nonprofit’s college access efforts centered around helping mixed-status families navigate the financial aid process, Tule-Romain said. The rollout of the redesigned FAFSA created so many roadblocks that most families needed intensive, step-by-step help just to get the form submitted, she said.
This year, ImmSchools has had to shift gears, she said. In the wake of Trump’s executive orders around immigration, the organization began not only helping families navigate the decision around whether to apply for financial aid, she said, but also what they should do in an encounter with immigration agents. Some mixed-status families have already given their information to the federal government, she said — if they submitted a FAFSA for an older child or applied for a Head Start program years ago, federal officials most likely have their information already. So it’s important that those families understand what rights they have if ICE agents show up at their home, she said.
College opens up opportunities for FWISD senior
It’s a possibility the Fort Worth ISD senior said her parents have already prepared for. They’ve told her they’ve set money aside and made sure she’d have a place to stay if they’re ever detained.
As worried as she is about her parents, the student said she’s also excited about the prospect of going to college. She wants to major in business, she said. She hopes it will give her a better understanding of the power that financial literacy can have for people, especially those in first-generation families.
But mostly, she’s excited about college as a way of gaining job skills and opening up new opportunities for herself. It’s also a new opportunity for her to excel — something that she knows reflects back on her parents.
“Thankfully, my parents have given me everything I want in life,” she said. “...They gave me the life they wish they had growing up.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
