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<\/p>\nHe was an undocumented immigrant. Now he runs LA’s community colleges<\/p>\n
The majority of California\u2019s undocumented college students are enrolled in California’s community colleges, and face uncertainty and anxiety under the current Trump administration.<\/p>\n
When Alberto Rom\u00e1n was a boy growing up in the Mexican state of Durango, his father was often far from home. Most times, he\u2019d be gone for months.<\/p>\n
Rom\u00e1n\u2019s father, Javier, had a third-grade education. And when work was scarce in Mexico, he\u2019d venture north to the United Sates and take whatever job he could find.<\/p>\n
Javier washed cars. He worked in factories. He picked crops. He built houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a guy you would find at Home Depot,\u201d Rom\u00e1n told LAist. \u201cHe did whatever it took to put food on the table and provide [his family] with shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rom\u00e1n missed his father terribly, and he relished the time alone with him. When his father would return to Mexico, they’d hike to a majestic statue of the revolutionary Pancho Villa, where Rom\u00e1n and his father could also look out at their city.<\/p>\n
Rom\u00e1n did not know it then but, soon, that view would become a memory. When he was eight, his father returned; but, this time, Javier took his son, his daughter, and his wife with him back to the U.S. The family settled in Rialto, in California’s Inland Empire. Suddenly, Rom\u00e1n had a new home and new challenges to contend with.<\/p>\n
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A young Alberto Rom\u00e1n (right) with his sister, mother and father in Durango, Mexico.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy Alberto Rom\u00e1n<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
The move to Rialto unfurled a series of labels and experiences. Rom\u00e1n became undocumented; an \u201cEnglish language learner\u201d; a teenage father; a parenting student. With time, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and, then, a first-generation college graduate who would one day earn a doctorate.<\/p>\n
Today, Rom\u00e1n serves as chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, which includes nine campuses and more than 200,000 students.<\/p>\n
A lot of these students are parents like he was, Rom\u00e1n said, and the vast majority of them have to work to help put themselves through school.<\/p>\n
And many of them are also immigrants.<\/p>\n
Leading LACCD’s response to immigration policy<\/p>\n
Rom\u00e1n was appointed chancellor last May. Soon after, the Trump administration unleashed its militarized mass deportation effort, which included raids and a show of force<\/a> throughout L.A. County.<\/p>\n One of the chancellor\u2019s responsibilities is managing LACCD\u2019s response to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Undocumented college students in the U.S. are racially and ethnically diverse<\/a>. California has an estimated 100,000 undocumented students, who make up a small percentage of the overall higher ed population<\/a>. The majority of those undocumented students are enrolled in community colleges.<\/p>\n In conversation with LAist, Rom\u00e1n referred to the ongoing raids and immigration detentions as \u201cinhumane.\u201d He also described the experience of a student whose father didn\u2019t come home one night. After being detained by immigration agents, Rom\u00e1n said, the student\u2019s family \u201cdidn’t know where he was for two months.\u201d<\/p>\n The student was 20 years old when her father was taken. Overnight, she became the head of her household. Now, on top of fulfilling her responsibilities at school, she has to figure out how to keep herself and her younger siblings housed and fed.<\/p>\n To support students in mixed-status families, the district\u2019s Dream Resource Centers<\/a> provide them with legal support, temporary housing options, additional mental health services and food vouchers.<\/p>\n Alouette Cervantes-Salazar coordinates East Los Angeles College\u2019s Dream Resource Center<\/a>, which provides support and services for undocumented students; DACA and TPS recipients; and students in mixed-status families.<\/p>\n According to Cervantes-Salazar, the Trump administration\u2019s deportation effort has transformed campus life. When the raids began last summer, she said, \u201cquite a bit\u201d of students who used to take classes in person moved to complete the semester online.<\/p>\n For some, Cervantes-Salazar added, online coursework has become preferable because it enables students to better juggle school and work. For others, the fear of getting to and from campus amid roving immigration patrols<\/a> has become a decisive factor.<\/p>\n Whether the Dream Resource Centers’ support will be enough to meet student needs remains to be seen, but Rom\u00e1n takes their stories to heart.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the stories of our community,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the stories of our students. These are the stories of their parents. And they are our stories, because they come to us for an education.\u201d<\/p>\n From ‘English language learner’ to college graduate\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rom\u00e1n\u2019s story in the U.S. began in the 1980s. After moving to California, it took Rom\u00e1n about two years to learn enough English to communicate with his classmates. Until then, his time in school was lonely.<\/p>\n
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