Students Fear Applying for Financial Aid Will Prompt Family Members’ Deportation

Abig part of Elizabeth House’s job is encouraging students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

The FAFSA is the key to support for financial aid such as Pell Grants and federally backed loans, but parents must provide their Social Security numbers or fill out nine zeros if they do not have one.

For students who have family members without the proper immigration documents, filling out the form has long been seen as a risky way to draw attention to their family’s status. House, however, urges students to take that step and fill out the FAFSA anyway.

“We encourage them to not stop your future plans because you have a fear due to being undocumented,” said House, who is the director of school counseling services with Greenville County Schools in South Carolina.

But this fall, some college advising groups are reluctantly taking a different stance. With President-elect Donald Trump saying he wants to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally and end birthright citizenship, they’re cautioning students filling out the form for the first time to think twice before doing so if they have family members who don’t have proper documentation.

In November, the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN, shared unprecedented guidance cautioning students with family members whose immigration status is questionable about filling out the federal financial aid application. The statement said it could not guarantee the data students and parents submit on the FAFSA would continue to be protected in light of the incoming administration’s public statements and priorities.

“Although the Higher Education Act prohibits the use of data for any purpose other than determining and awarding federal financial assistance, at this time NCAN cannot assure mixed-status students and families that data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, as part of the FAFSA process, will continue to be protected,” the organization said in its guidance.

Counselors like House are worried these messages will undermine the trust schools have built with immigrant families to get students into college.

“Even one student not filling it out is a negative impact,” she said.

Students who are not authorized to be in the country are not eligible for federal aid, but the FAFSA is widely used as a pathway for other types of scholarships. High school counselors and college advisers have encouraged these students to fill out the form, because some colleges offer scholarships regardless of citizenship status.

FAFSA data is protected under the Higher Education Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. There is no agreement allowing data collected on the financial aid form to be used for immigration enforcement. In a press call Thursday to answer questions about the rollout of this year’s online FAFSA, administration officials with the Education Department said President Joe Biden has prioritized protecting student and family privacy.

“We can’t speak for future policymakers, and students and families should consider this information and make the decisions that are right for them,” a senior Education Department official said.

Some groups are sharing NCAN’s message with counselors or directly with students, such as Matriculate, an organization based in New York that pairs high achieving and low-income students with undergraduate mentors to help guide them to college.

“It’s information that we believe our students need to have access to,” said Bryan Contreras, managing director of program, partnerships and growth at Matriculate.

Others are offering different advice. ImmSchools, a Dallas-based nonprofit that works with schools to improve outcomes for immigrant students, is encouraging students to fill out the paper version of the FAFSA form instead of the online application. In the paper version, students do not have to directly answer a yes or no question on whether they have a Social Security number, though they do still have to put something in the space for the actual number.

“Fears are heightened and with good reason,” said Astou Thiane, director of policy at ImmSchools. “You have an administration that has been on the record saying they will pursue a policy of mass deportations against undocumented and immigrant communities. I think that will have far-reaching effects on immigrant people, period.”

Trump has been consistent in his intent to carry out mass deportations, but he’s sent mixed messages on what those plans entail. He has said he would work with Democrats on a solution allowing “Dreamers” — students brought to the United States illegally when they were young — to stay in the country. But incoming administration officials have also said one option to avoid breaking up families with a mix of citizens and people not authorized to be in the country is to deport everyone “together.”

The National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC, whose 28,000 members include high school counselors and college advisers, is weighing the risks. Concerns over filling out the FAFSA are not new to students and families with questionable immigration status, said David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer with NACAC, but the mass deportation threats have intensified fears that immigration enforcement will find a way to use FAFSA data, even though it is supposed to be protected.

“We can’t guarantee that the future administration might or might not use this information, but we don’t want to stoke fears when there isn’t anything yet on the table that would suggest that this information will be used for anything other than financial aid,” Hawkins said.

Ultimately, House believes warning students against filling out the FAFSA will do more harm than good. The school counselors in Greenville are going to continue advising students to fill it out, regardless of their citizenship status, and connect them to schools with scholarships they may qualify for.

“We would love for every organization to be encouraging and helpful — to help us find resources for all of our students,” House said.

Contact staff writer Ariel Gilreath at 212-678-3639 or gilreath@hechingerreport.org.

This story about FAFSA help was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger K-12 newsletter.