20 years in Asylum Limbo Jeopardized her College Career
In December 2021, when most undergraduate students were worried about their finals and wondering whether next quarter would be online, new transfer student Shugufa* was making yet another trek across campus in order to figure out whether she needed to pay $12,000 immediately or get dropped from her classes. Shugufa, a political science and pre-med major, and her family had applied for asylum. Their case had been delayed for 20 years and, due to this, Shugufa’s “immigration status” was incompatible both with FAFSA and with the DREAM Act. The California DREAM Act makes financial aid dependent on time spent in a California high school as well as in a community college, and since Shugufa went to high school out of state, she did not qualify.
Shugufa’s family escaped from Afghanistan to the United States in 2001, and their indeterminate immigration status shadowed Shugufa’s childhood in New York. Delay after delay arose, interfering with work permits and drivers’ licenses, and Shugufa got used to staying under the radar. Once she decided to go to college in California, the whole family moved to Sacramento and found a much bigger Afghan community. Shugufa attended Sacramento City College, and planned on applying to UC Davis.
At Sacramento City College, Shugufa’s immigration status seemed like a non-issue; after a little bit of coordination with school officials, she found it easy to get the financial aid she needed. When applying to UC Davis, she of course mentioned her struggle for asylum, and when she was accepted, she was overjoyed. However, in August, Shugufa noticed a strange hold on her UC Davis account. After some investigation, she found out that she had been marked ineligible for financial aid. No one from the financial aid office ever contacted Shugufa either via email or phone; it was up to Shugufa to figure this out.
In her first quarter at UC Davis, Shugufa attended classes, adjusted to the new quarter system, and tried to resolve her financial aid problems. Throughout the quarter, she made trips to the Financial Aid and Registrar’s offices, only to be referred back and forth between them. Near the end of the quarter, Shugufa was exhausted and facing the possibility of getting dropped from both her current and her Winter classes.
Religious Studies was just an interest for Shugufa, one of those moments when you can take a class that you’re actually interested in, so she was excited at the prospect of taking a class on many yogas (RST 139: Topics in Hinduism) with Lynna Dhanani, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. When she alerted Professor Dhanani that she might have to drop the class, the conversation that followed literally changed Shugufa’s life.
After going over with Shugufa what had been done and what options had been exhausted, Professor Dhanani, a new hire who had joined UC Davis during the pandemic, sent an email to some colleagues that she thought might be able to help, including Professor Keith David Watenpaugh, Professor and Director of Human Rights Studies. Watenpaugh was able to put Dhanani into contact with the right administrators and offices, which included Cynthia Ching, Interim Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, who Professor Dhanani credits with putting things in motion. Wesley Young, Director of the Office of International Services for Students and Scholars, applied for an Institute of International Education emergency fund grant for Shugufa the very same day he learned about her case, which won her $3,500. Joanna Regulska,Vice Provost and Dean of Global Affairs, and Pablo Reguerín, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, agreed to match the IIE funds. Other very helpful administrators included Keisha Liggett-Nichols, Assistant Vice Provost of Global Affairs, Deborah Agee, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management; Sheri Atkinson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life, Campus Community, and Retention Services; Trina Wilson, Senior Associate Director of UC Davis Financial Aid and Scholarships; Ileana Y Acevedo, Manager of Student Accounts; and David Flores, University Registrar. In addition to the $7,000 in funds, UC Davis agreed to put a hold on the bill until Shugufa’s asylum case was resolved.
Professor Dhanani also walked Shugufa down to Representative John Garamendi’s office in downtown Davis, where a member of Garamendi’s staff, Aaron Latta, became a point person for trying to expedite Shugufa’s family’s asylum application hearing. However, since her family’s asylum hearing was already scheduled and UC Davis had already agreed to hold the bill pending the results of the hearing, there was not much Garamendi’s office could do to speed up a decision.
Finally, after 20 long years, Shugufa’s family was granted asylum, and she was able to resolve her financial aid problems with the university.
For Shugufa, much of the frustration had to do with the way students can access university administration for help. An initial search of UC Davis’ website does not immediately turn up helpful resources for asylees, and asylum status is not mentioned in any detail in the application information. One of the most crucial moments of Shugufa’s journey was waiting almost two hours to speak to the director of the AB540 Center. She had not known about the AB540 Center at all; neither the Financial Aid nor the Registrar’s Offices had ever referred her. Though the center is primarily focused on undocumented students, they did not have a clear idea of the protocol for potential asylees—part of the problem that kept Shugufa bouncing between offices on campus. Shugufa’s situation was slightly more unusual than most asylum seekers, but it was also not out of the ordinary; applying for asylum is a notoriously difficult and arduous process and no one interacting with students on a day to day basis seemed to know anything about it. The people that students interact with in these offices are often other student workers who are not experienced enough to deal with special situations and rely on a “most common solutions” approach, which is to refer students to other offices who might know more.
Shugufa wants to change that. As a pre-med political science major, Shugufa plans to set herself up for her career as a politician by instituting change here at UC Davis. She wants to petition the school to acquire more resources for asylees at the AB540 office, or to acquire someone who is more familiar with issues of asylum and other forms of immigration, to better help a wider variety of students. She also wants to overturn the part of the DREAM Act that puts such stringent requirements on non-resident students in order to receive financial aid.
Professor Dhanani agrees that the administrative process was particularly difficult for students to navigate and supports adding dedicated staff for refugee students or a hotline where students can easily access advice. Seeing how helpful Aaron Latta from State Rep. Garamandi’s office was, she also thinks the university should work in coordination with local state offices to help resolve individual cases. Although this experience highlighted the need for these types of institutional changes, Dhanani was delighted to discover just how generous and kind the Davis community is as she witnessed so many coming to Shugufa’s aid. She knew the moment Shugufa called her to tell her about her family’s asylum status being approved that she would not be the only one celebrating this success!
To read more about Shugufa’s family and the struggle in the immigration courts, please check out Deepa Fernandes’ reporting at the SF Chronicle here and here.
Resources for asylum seekers or those facing immigration issues that endanger their college career:
Article 26 Backpack: Keith David Watenpaugh is the director of this project which produces an app that can help plan and structure college for people 18 and over with a high school diploma. This is a mechanism to safely store, share, and have evaluated documentation of transcripts, diplomas and other forms of certification. Much more than just an app, the project creates an ecosystem that makes it possible for refugee and other at-risk young people to connect with those institutions, programs, and employers that can best help them.
UC Immigrant Legal Services Center: Operating out of UC Davis School of Law, UCImm serves the immigration-related legal needs of students in the University of California system and their immediate family members (parents, spouse, siblings, and/or children).
UC Davis AB540 & Undocumented Student Center: The Center strives to educate and build awareness of changing policies affecting California's undocumented population.
*In order to protect Shugufa's family, we are withholding her last name.