Young and undocumented: These immigrants with college educations are keeping a low profile as they navigate an era of aggressive mass deportation

For young, undocumented immigrants living under the second Trump administration, the future is uncertain.

Though undocumented people are often not inaccurately associated with jobs in agriculture, immigrants with and without paperwork are everywhere, including tech. Some are professional college graduates and Ivy League students who grew up partially or virtually entirely in the United States.

TeenSHARP was founded in 2009 by husband and wife team Atnre Alleyne and Tatiana Poladko with the goal of helping low-income and minority students get into — and graduate from — top-tier universities. That includes students who don’t have citizenship, who came to the US as minors. These students and graduates continue to study and work even as they are at risk of deportation under a plan the administration called “the largest mass deportation plan in history.”

“We always have undocumented students, and undocumented parents,” Alleyne told Technical.ly. This year, he said, the virtual program includes about 40 seniors of various backgrounds.

Like most of the students in TeenSHARP’s rigorous high school college preparation program, undocumented students get accepted into top colleges and universities and graduate into professional jobs, despite challenges. While undocumented children must be allowed to attend K-12 schools, getting into college is a path full of roadblocks, from difficulties getting into high school advanced placement courses to finding financial aid and a place of higher education that accepts students without documentation. 

These students didn’t choose to be undocumented. For many families who came across the southern border without documentation, getting legal status was the goal from the very start. But it can take years to process green card applications from Mexican immigrants, even with family sponsorship, and some undocumented immigrants have no available options to apply for citizenship.

“My grandfather, who became an American citizen, sponsored my father in 1998 and we’re still in the process of trying to figure it out,” one undocumented student from Mexico, who we will refer to as C., told Technical.ly. “It’s thousands of dollars and can take decades.”

In 2012, a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was launched to protect immigrants who came to the US under the age of 16 from deportation, as well as issuing work authorization if they are a student, a high school/GED graduate or an honorably discharged veteran. Recipients of the program are able to go to college and get legal jobs in the US, but it’s not permanent. People who are granted DACA status must reapply every two years. 

Though over 1 million young immigrants are estimated to be eligible for DACA, only about half of that number were active recipients in 2023. There has been no Trump executive order this term to rescind DACA at the time of this reporting, though advocates have concerns for its future.

We spoke to two undocumented graduates of TeenSHARP — one is a DACA recipient, one is not — to get a better idea of what it’s like to be young and undocumented under the 47th administration. Because undocumented immigrants with no criminal records are being targeted as well as alleged violent criminals, we are not using their names or the names of their schools or employers for their safety. 

‘It’s very secret’

C. is a current college student at an Ivy League university in the northeast studying Industrial Labor Relations. She came to the US with her parents at age three, and her family has been trying to get documented since. Although she is eligible for DACA, the application she submitted last summer has been neither approved or denied, leaving her without work authorization as she heads toward graduation.

As ICE raids ramped up in January after the inauguration of Trump, C. said that there has been a general feeling of normalcy on campus — but there’s also fear, especially after rumors that ICE agents had been seen around her college town.

“For me personally, things have changed,” she said. “Everything is the same in the sense of I’m still a student, but I feel like since the situation it’s very secret, I don’t want people to know about it. I’m constantly thinking, ‘are my parents OK?'”

Even without ICE knocking on the door, planning a future with neither citizenship nor DACA is a challenge. C.’s university is supportive — it even has an office specifically for undocumented students. But without work authorization, moving beyond college is tough. “Even if I’m not able to get a job like my peers, I’m fine with working in a restaurant or something,” she said. “I feel like no job is really below me. But I also feel like it’s a shame because I’ve worked really hard, similar to my peers, and I do still get some of the opportunities, but I don’t have legal work authorization.”

Work authorization is also required for internships, which companies often want students to participate in.  

Still, C. looks forward with at least some optimism. A coveted job as an analyst at a bank may not be in the cards for now, but there are other options.

“Entrepreneurship is one way that I can work legally,” she said. “I could do contract jobs or run my own business.”

‘Keep moving forward’

Another young undocumented immigrant we’ll call Z. was a member of the first TeenSHARP cohort in 2017. She came to the US at the age of 12 with her parents, though her father was deported not long after. She remembers Poladko coming to speak at her high school about TeenSHARP. DACA was fairly new, and Z. didn’t know if college was a viable option for her — let alone a top private college.

“I was very interested because it sounded like they gave you very personalized attention, and that’s exactly what I needed,” Z. told Technical.ly.

Today Z. works as a communications and digital media specialist for a nonprofit organization.

At the time Z. was first granted DACA status in the late 2010s, she found that most state schools and community colleges did not support the program, nor did they offer any state funding or federal grants for students like her. So, while community college is low or no-cost option for citizen students graduating from high school, for Z., it wasn’t an option. 

TeenSHARP, with its focus on private institutions, was a more viable path, since private funding and scholarships, unlike FAFSA and state scholarships, didn’t have to require proof of citizenship.  

“They helped me create a list [of colleges] based on the kind of student that I was,” she said. “I didn’t have the highest SAT or ACT scores and I needed my full financial needs met to attend college because my mom was a single mom after my dad got deported.”

She found a match in a top-tier private college that ticked all of the boxes and soon found herself in a new world at the predominantly white institution. “I was always grateful that they paid for the full tuition, but at the same time I felt a little bit isolated,” Z. said. “But I was able to find my community within the school and thankfully I have my bachelor of arts in film studies now.”

With the current climate of mass deportations, Z. says she feels fortunate to work for a nonprofit that is very diversity, equity and inclusion oriented that works on campaigns to educate and protect immigrants. Some of the organization’s advocacy applies to her as a member of a mixed-status family.

“I had to have a difficult conversation with my nieces,” she said. “They’re citizens, but the rest of my family are either DACA or undocumented. I encourage people in mixed-status families to have those conversations with the younger generations about their rights, and knowing that they don’t have to give anyone any information about their families.” That includes encouraging undocumented and mixed-status families to have a plan if a family member is detained.

While Z.’s organization has been supportive, she’s aware that she could still lose her job in the current climate. 

“If DACA does happen to get taken away, I will probably be unemployed like many people,” she said. The possibility is so strong that Z. is considering a return to Mexico on Advanced Parole so that she can return legally. 

“Just keep moving forward,” she said.

Resources for undocumented and DACA immigrants:

• TeenSHARP

• Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

• United We Dream

This story, and all of Technical.ly's immigration reporting, is made possible by the WES Mariam Assefa Fund.

The WES Mariam Assefa Fund supports catalytic efforts to create more inclusive economies for immigrants and refugees in the US and Canada. It works closely with organizations and leaders focused on ensuring more equitable access to opportunity and wealth.