2 ‘Dreamers’ vie for top job in UCF student government
She is an unabashed advocate, pushing city and university leaders to protect undocumented immigrants and swiftly correcting a professor who used the pejorative term “illegals” in class.
He is more understated, saying he never hides his “Dreamer” status, but it is not his conversation starter.
When University of Central Florida students cast their ballots for student government president this week, they will choose between Karen Caudillo and Josh Boloña, both beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, which protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The differences in their personal styles reflect the diversity of people known as “Dreamers,” nearly 700,000 young immigrants whose futures in the United States are uncertain. As DACA recipients, Boloña and Caudillo can
work here, but they are not citizens.
President Donald Trump said last fall he intended to phase out the program, which the previous administration created by executive order, saying he wanted Congress to come up with a legislative fix. A Supreme Court ruling has delayed the initial March 5 end date, likely until after the November midterm elections.
But this week, student campaigns are in full swing at UCF. Signs bearing the candidates’ names and slogans dot the landscaping. Students will cast their ballots for president and vice president, who lead the executive branch of the university’s student government, which oversees a $19 million budget, including hundreds of student jobs, as well as the Student Union building and the Recreation and Wellness Center. Results will be announced Wednesday night.
The president also serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.
Many institutions, including UCF, don’t count the number of DACA and undocumented students they have.
A Facebook group called “Dreamers at UCF” has nearly 300 followers. Nationally, about a fifth of DACA recipients are enrolled in college, and about 5 percent have already completed bachelor’s degrees, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Yet, these students face additional hurdles getting through school. They are not eligible for state or federal aid, though they can pay the instate tuition rate if they attended high school for three consecutive years in Florida.
“It’s a very tough position to live in,” said Belinda Higgs Hyppolite, assistant vice president of community support at UCF.
Many receive private scholarships, however. Since fall 2016, UCF students have been eligible for aid from a national organization called TheDream.US, which provides money for college for DACA students, as well as those who are undocumented.
UCF provides support in non-financial ways, including offering a “Myth Busters” session to educate students and employees about DACA and undocumented people.
“Our DACA students are like every other student here,” Higgs Hyppolite said. “They are trying to better themselves so they can have a bright future.”
Caudillo, a Mexico native who came to the U.S. when she was 4, calls Naples home. Now 22, she transferred from Miami Dade College last August and expects to graduate next spring. She is majoring in international relations and wants to continue her studies, possibly in international environmental law, or maybe in feminist or political theory.
At an Orlando City Council meeting in November, she urged the city to limit cooperation between the police force and federal immigration authorities. In January, she pressed a university committee to hire a president who will support undocumented students.
If Caudillo and her running mate, Theressa Tong, win, they would be the first pair of women to serve as president and vice president together.
Boloña, who is studying industrial engineering and plans to finish next year, was born in Ecuador. He arrived in Florida when he was 6, growing up in Broward County.
Little by little, he understood what it meant to be undocumented, not being able to go on a cruise with a friend and feeling left behind while his friends raced to get their drivers permits. Now 21, he says he is open about his situation.
“If they find out my status, I’m not going to hide that,” he said, adding, “I wanted to humanize it as much as possible.”
Boloña and Caudillo both talk about campus security. She wants to push for a greener campus. He wants quicker access to mentalhealth services.
Caudillo is the owner of an organic cleaning business and wants to expand urban farming and composting initiatives at UCF and reduce the reliance on plastic and Styrofoam. She also wants to open the university police department’s defense courses to men and distribute mace during the annual safety week.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t feel safe on campus, you’re not going to want to get an education,” she said.
That worry hits particularly close to home for Boloña, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, were 17 people were killed in a shooting last month. Boloña wants to push for shorter wait times for students who want to see mental-health counselors on campus.
He also proposed introducing an app that would automatically notify university police if a user may be in danger.
For both candidates, the desire to lead flows from their determination to make their campus better for future generations.
“It’s never been for a specific issue, never been for a specific topic,” Boloña said. “It’s always been who I am. Just stepping up to the plate and being a leader.”
Caudillo said she remembers visiting UCF as a high school sophomore and promising herself one day she would be an alumna. She is ready to serve as president, she said, because she has already overcome barriers as an immigrant and woman of color.
“I think I just realized that there really was no limit,” she said. “If I really wanted to work on bettering my school and bettering my experience that I’ve been having here, I would need to represent at a higher level.”