Students with Family Here Illegally Fear Applying for Financial Aid

“I felt scared applying for financial aid,” said Ashley Virgen Morales, the 17-year-old senior who plans on attending CU Boulder next fall and majoring in psychology. This is her first time applying for aid; however, as one of many students with mixed-family status, she is concerned. “I felt afraid of putting my parents’ information in the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] due to our mixed status; I didn’t want to put my family at risk.” 

“My counselor told me before we start applying that we should know that there could be some risk in putting your parents’ information down and it might not be protected,” added Ramon De Arcos Tapia, a senior at Westminster High School who also plans on attending CU Boulder. “I felt uncertain about applying for FAFSA because I didn’t want to put my family at risk due to our mixed family status.” 

Fears and worries about jeopardizing their families can lead to students not wanting to apply for financial assistance for college because they don’t want to expose their parents’ immigrant status. If a student does decide not to apply for aid because of this reason, they could miss out on receiving grants, loans and other monetary assistance.

Apdiela Pulido, a scholarship coordinator at the Community College of Denver’s (CCD) office of financial aid, says students should still apply for financial aid. 

“I tell my students, we are not going to stop living our lives,” Pulido said. “You’re not going to stop going to school; I am not going to stop working. We are going to keep fighting forward until the end, until they really stop us. If they have the opportunity [to apply], do it, even though it can be scary for some. They need to trust in themselves because they deserve to have this kind of help. They are citizens and they are supposed to get financial help; it’s for everyone, not just for one group of people.” 

What Happens When Students Apply for FASFA?

When a student is applying for financial assistance, they have to fill out the FAFSA form in order to qualify for any financial support. The application asks for the student’s name, address, birth date, social security number, citizenship/immigration status, driver’s license, IRS information and more information about the university they are attending. 

If the student is dependent, meaning a child or relative who relies on their parents or adult guardians for financial support, it will ask for the parent or guardians’  information. One of the pieces of information they require is whether or not they have a social security number, and they request their IRS information. But what happens if the parent does not have a social security number?

The Federal Student Aid (FSA), which is an office of the Department of Education [DOE],  states: “Like the student, the parent’s identity information should match what appears on their social security card. If the parent does not have a Social Security number and is completing their section of the form online, the SSN field will automatically be blank. If the parent is completing their section of the form using the paper (PDF) FAFSA, they should enter all zeros in the SSN field. In both application methods, the parent should enter their ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number), if they have one, in the ITIN field.”

Putting “zeros” or leaving the parents’ social security question blank raises concerns for some who have undocumented parents and family members because they are providing this information to a federal agency. In today’s political climate and with ICE using many different tactics to lure and deport immigrants, one question arises if ICE and Homeland Security could exploit and weaponize the sensitive information from the financial aid application to pinpoint where students live and deport the ones’ that have undocumented parents/family members. 

Pulido adds that she makes sure to reassure her students and the parents of those students who expressed their worries to her that the information they give to the financial aid office at CCD on the FASFA form will not be given out to anyone else. She says that the information being used in the FASFA form is solely for the student and to see if the student is eligible for aid and not just a check for the immigration status of a person.

But another professional in the field wasn’t so sure. “I work in financial aid as well and wish we had the answers,” said Cold-Thanks- on Reddit. “We know just as much as everyone else, which is nothing. It’s scary to think our students’ parents could be at risk like this, especially since many of them filed the FAFSA with our encouragement because, at the time, we were assured the information wouldn’t be used that way.”  

So, Can ICE and Homeland Security Use This Information? 

In summary, no, they can’t legally use this information against students with mixed-family status because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA] and the Privacy Act of 1974. These laws protect students and families by regulating how the U.S. government agencies collect, use, maintain and disclose personal information about people, which prevents the disclosure of records without their consent. 

The U.S. DOE does state that without the person’s consent, they may disclose your information to authorized entities/agencies that is a “routine use.” While doing so, these agencies must maintain the “safeguards” that are under the Privacy Act of 1974. They may also send the information to other authorized federal agencies through computer matching programs. 

“We do this to verify your eligibility for federal student aid and perform debt collection under the federal loan programs,” according to the Federal Student Aid’s website. “We also do this to minimize and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal student aid programs. Computer matching programs include those with the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Veteran Affairs and Department of Homeland Security.”

While the U.S. DOE is transparent about what they do with students’ information, in today’s political climate it can be hard to predict what could be next for students of immigrant backgrounds. Jazmin Chavez, a Chicano studies professor at MSU Denver, thinks it could be something that impacts all students soon. Not only does Chavez teach about Chicanos and the law, but she has over 20 years of experience in online strategy for nonprofits, social justice and progressive campaigns and analytics. 

“I think the fear is valid and although we haven’t seen any indication of the DOE coming after FAFSA, it could be something that impacts all students by the end of the year or at some point in the next four years,” Chavez said. “However, litigation would ensue as this is critical, vital and private information that should be protected at all costs. FERPA prohibits the sharing of this information; this is under the idea and belief that FERPA will remain intact and that the DOE will continue to honor and abide. It’s just so difficult to say what they will or will not do to keep FERPA intact.” 

What Chavez says raises another question: in this political climate, one might wonder if these laws can still protect these students from having undocumented parents, if these agencies will follow these laws, and/or if these laws will be challenged. For example, the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, is being challenged in Tennessee by local lawmakers who proposed a bill to deny enrollment to undocumented students in public schools, according to the news report from WTVF in Nashville. 

Is higher education coming next? Despite their concerns about being students with mixed-family status applying for financial aid, Virgen Morales and De Arcos Tapia still went through with applying for aid and were able to receive financial support.

Even though their worries are still real, they won’t have to worry about paying for their tuition out of pocket. De Arcos Tapia’s father tells him not to be afraid; he has previously faced immigration pressure and, on his father’s advice, encourages his son and others to continue their education as students with mixed-family status. 

“Being undocumented is already a risk in itself,” De Arcos Tapia said. “So it’s better to adapt to the risk than to live in fear.”