With federal protections for immigrant students threatened, California has a lifeline: the California Dream Act Application (CADAA).
Last spring, the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) — the state agency responsible for distributing over $3 billion in financial aid — reported a 38 percent drop in CADAA applications and a 14 percent drop in Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications statewide.
Although student aid application declines aren’t new — rollout delays and technical glitches during last year’s FAFSA cycle led to a nine percent decline in applications nationwide as of August 2024 — many experts and students attribute more recent declines to fears that undocumented and even legal immigrant students will have their data shared and targeted for deportation.
While there is currently no known data-sharing agreement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Education, which administers FAFSA, DHS has already formed data-sharing agreements with other federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, US Postal Inspection Service and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Many of the Californians that we are neighbors with — our families, teachers, coworkers — are living in unprecedented times where their data is being shared between federal agencies to attack them and target them in the name of federal immigration enforcement,” said Dr. Daisy Gonzales, executive director of CSAC, at a June 24 American Community Media briefing on aid for California’s immigrant students.
“Our students are in survival mode. Many of them are thinking about not pursuing their higher education as the future seems very unlikely, and in particular a future in this country,” she continued. “Choosing to pursue your dreams, choosing to apply for financial aid, is an act of resistance for many of these communities who would otherwise have no access in this country.”
Around 55 percent of California students receive federal grants, close to the national rate of 56 percent.
The share of financial aid applicant students with at least one undocumented parent fell 44 percent last February compared to February 2024, from about 30,000 Californians to 17,000.
While student aid applications overall are now rising again in California, CSAC is still seeing decreases among students from undocumented, mixed-status and refugee families.
Gonzales encouraged these groups — particularly undocumented students, who are ineligible for FAFSA — to apply for aid through CADAA, where “the data that students complete will only be used to determine state and institutional aid eligibility, and it is not shared with the federal government.”
Students with legal documentation can “fill out both and we figure out the process,” she added. “The student applies, they tell us where they intend to go, where they got accepted, and then we match their aid to their institution.”
Although aid deadlines vary among public and private universities, the final deadline for applicants intending to start community college this fall is September 2.
Multilingual FAFSA and CADAA application help is available through CSAC.
As California grapples with a $12 billion budget shortfall, meanwhile, the state Legislature and Gov. Newsom are expected to reach a $321.1 billion total annual budget this week.
Gonzales said, “What I have seen in the budget so far confirms that … financial aid higher education continues to be a priority in California.”
Since CADAA was created in 2011, “We have seen thousands of students have opportunity doors open to them,” said Christopher Gonzales, chief strategy officer of 10,000 Degrees, a 44-year-old college success nonprofit based in eight Bay Area counties.
“I’ve had previous students of mine, who I’d seen through the entire process — helped them get to college, helped them secure that career — now working for 10,000 Degrees again as program staff able to connect our students to their own story … as peer role models showing them that this is possible because they did it,” he explained. “It’s a cyclical change that’s extra impactful because it’s not just about one student. You’re lifting your family out of generational poverty.”
“Students can have really fantastic grades, and sometimes it still doesn’t seem achievable if the finances aren’t there,” Gonzales continued. “We had a student in Sonoma County who we’ve worked with for over two years, who had a lot of instability in their home life, being from a mixed-status family … who were hesitating with all the misinformation out there (over data privacy).”
With CSAC, “we were able to do some fact-checking with the student and work through with that family over multiple meetings that it really is safe to apply through the California Dream Act Application,” he added. “They applied and we’re working through their college financial aid packages right now … It’s hard sometimes, when we get lost in the news and it’s only negative, when the reality is there are also stories of people who are still persisting and making it.”
“I’m a first-generation student. I remember being in high school filling out FAFSA, and even years ago there was still that fear … What’s going to happen to my parents’ information?” said Celeste Mar, a graduate counseling student at California State University, Long Beach.
Now, she continued, “I see that our students and their families are being targeted simply by the way they look. They even have to go to the grocery store for their parents. They’ve had to be that front person to support their families in these hard times … During this political climate, our students are still hesitant. They believe that by not filling out these applications, that means that they get to protect their families.”
Mar, who aims to become a school counselor, said that during last year’s financial aid cycle and this year’s, she has already been counseling undergraduate students at CSU Long Beach “who have similar upbringings and who have the same fears as me … especially right now in Los Angeles, with the ICE raids happening.”
“Although CADAA is a reliable application, that fear will still remain there,” said Mar, “until you help the student and their family make that informed decision on how they want to move forward.”
“I grew up in a low-income community. My neighbors were immigrants, my family are immigrants,” she added. “I want to become that support that students can look to in order for them to realize that higher education is possible for them.”
