While witnessing a rise in deportations across the country, college-bound high school seniors with immigrant parents in California had to decide this spring whether to submit a federal financial aid application. Their fear: The federal government will use sensitive personal information from the application to identify people in the country who lack legal status. An agreement between the IRS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share tax information is already in motion.
However, the latest data available from the California Student Aid Commission shows that the number of high school senior applicants from mixed-status families has not decreased as much as some financial aid advocates feared it would. In fact, the number of high school senior applicants with at least one parent lacking legal status has nearly rebounded to the 2023 number after the revised financial aid form last year kept them from being able to apply without parental Social Security numbers for several months.
Despite the risk of exposing their parents to a deportation dragnet, 35% more college-bound high school seniors from mixed-status families have submitted a Free Application for Federal Student Aid as of the May 2 deadline compared to applications submitted by the same date last year. However, 9% fewer high school seniors from mixed-status families submitted their FAFSA compared to the same date two years ago. Community college students are notably excluded from these numbers as they have a separate deadline of Sept. 2.
Read more at CalMatters.
