“Illegal immigrant.”

Berenice Rodriguez’s 300-person lecture had been discussing immigration when she heard someone say those words. It was her professor.

Rodriguez approached her after class to explain that describing undocumented immigrants as “illegal” was politically incorrect. The professor responded, “Oh, I’m sorry, that must have hit home for you.”

It did hit home, Rodriguez said. But the professor had no right to assume that it did.

It’s instances like these that have made up the experiences of many of Syracuse University’s Latina students. These types of comments and responses aren’t shocking, Rodriguez said, because she has heard them all her life.

What’s shocking is that she no longer is hearing these comments in the classroom, but on TV, in the form of pointed rhetoric from the Republican party presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In less than a month a new president will be elected. As of October 17, polls taken by Latino Decisions show 74 percent of Latinos will be voting for Clinton, with only 15 percent voting for Trump.

Trump’s lack of support from the SU Latina community and beyond stems from his hard-lined immigration policies and lack of outreach to the community.

During the primaries, Trump made a number of remarks which polarized him to the Latino identity at large. Latinos don’t all get along, but this brought the community together, said Gladys McCormick, an assistant professor of history with a specialty in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was having to sit my daughters down and explain to them why Donald Trump hates us,” said McCormick.

“… It was a nightmare.”

And that nightmare could get worse for an undocumented student like Rodriguez, turning a possibility into a reality.

Rodriguez is a DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipient. The executive order was signed by Barack Obama in 2012, and allows undocumented children to obtain a work license if they meet certain criteria.

Rodriguez came to the U.S. when she was six years old, in hopes of achieving a better education than she would have received in Mexico. Upon graduation, Rodriguez plans to apply to law school, where she hopes she can participate in advocacy work to create change.

Trump might take away DACA and other policies set in place for undocumented immigrants, Rodriguez said, and she would have no choice but to leave the country.

“I think it would be really, really mind-blowing if I were to graduate from Syracuse, to go to law school, and then go work at like, a restaurant that’s paid under the table,” Rodriguez said.

Myrna García-Calderón, director of the Latino-Latin American studies department, can’t even bring herself to utter the name “President Trump.”

He is ignorant, ignorant about so many things, and ignorance is a very dangerous position to take, García-Calderón said. Her biggest fear in terms of Trump has regularized something that should never be regularized: hate.

“If you look at both candidates, there is one that seems sympathetic to the plight,” said García-Calderón.

But Clinton isn’t a golden candidate either. She has put a stronger emphasis on the Latino population, but this outreach doesn’t translate into Latinos being a priority for her.

“At the end of the day she knows she has us,” McCormick said. “She knows we don’t have any other option.”

Immigration is among the most important issues for Latinos in this election cycle, according to the Pew Research Center. For real change to occur in programs such as the DREAM Act —  a legislative proposal temporarily established under Obama’s executive action that would create a pathway to legal status for undocumented students — immigration first needs to be looked at and reformed, McCormick said.

Latinos have an uncertain attitude in terms of the legacy Clinton will be continuing. While Obama has advocated for social justice issues, he has deported more Latinos than any other president in the history of the U.S., McCormick said, earning him the name, “The Deporter in Chief.”

McCormick still believes in the notion of hope, just like she did in 2008.

While Obama did not come through on his promise, McCormick said, she is hoping Clinton will reform immigration policies and address the thousands of people sitting in detention centers, the divided families and those living in fear of deportation every day.

Jacqueline San Nicolas, a senior anthropology major of Mexican descent, said she will grudgingly vote for Clinton, because as much as she disagrees with her policies and history, she cares more about the communities that will be actively targeted.

“I don’t think either of them are great, both of them have a very strong history with ignoring Latino people’s pain…” San Nicolas said. “That having said, hell would have to freeze over for me to vote for Donald Trump.”

Executive actions only go so far; for long term solutions to be enacted, the Senate and House of Representatives would both have to be on board. If Congress leaned Democratic, it would open up a real conversation about immigration reform.

“(Immigration) would be something one would imagine could be dealt with more humanly,” García-Calderón said.

Marina Cortes, a sophomore biology and forensic science integrated learning major, said if her family were to be sent back to Mexico, she would have to drop out of school and go back home to Los Angeles to take care of her younger brother. Thinking about if this situation could happen is stressful, she said.

“I want them to be able to separate the fact that the majority of undocumented immigrants are just people that have families, and that’s it,” Cortes said. “And they have children here. And the idea to just deport all of the ‘illegals’ is not really possible to do without tearing apart families.”

If indeed Hillary Clinton wins and is sincere about what she would do with the issue of immigration, and if there is the courage to address the issue in an effective way, then we can be hopeful, García-Calderón said.

Bea González, dean of University College, has worked with Clinton personally as a delegate in 2008. She said Clinton is not perfect, but she at least has an understanding of the world around her and knows that it’s about building relationships, not tearing them down.

“She’s actually kind of funny, she’s smart,” said Gonzalez about Clinton. “…  and she’s tough as nails.”

Trump paints the Latino population with a broad brush that says they are not contributors to society, without realizing how hard Latino immigrants work, Gonzalez said. She grew up seeing her parents do the jobs that nobody else wanted to do, and to hear Trump diminish immigrant workers is painful.

“He makes me wonder if there’s any place for me in a Trump presidency, or for people like me,” Gonzalez said.

Published on October 23, 2016 at 9:05 pm

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB