The Silver State is known for accepting all students in its classrooms regardless of legal status.

But that welcoming culture is being put to the test under President Donald Trump’s administration and his hard-line approach to immigration. UNR officials said they know of at least two students who have left school out of fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials will follow them home to their families, and “we know that fear is impacting attendance not just in higher ed, but K-12 as well,” said Michael Flores, the university’s vice president of government and community engagement. 

Here’s a look at the resources available to undocumented students in Nevada, and what UNR is doing to quell their fears.

Resources

When students first attend UNR, they go through a weeklong orientation, NevadaFit. Over the last few years, Flores said they’ve added sessions to specifically focus on Latino families.

“[President Sandoval and his team] meet with our Latinx parents and talk to them about what opportunities are on campus, and we make sure they know all the resources that are out there,” Flores said. 

Higher education institutions do not ask students to disclose their immigration status, and Flores confirmed it’s impossible to determine who’s documented and who’s not.

Many students have turned to UndocuPack, a program where Latinx community coordinator Janet Najera connects students to resources, community partners and campus organizations.

When students approach with mental health concerns, Najera has been focused on turning these students to the appropriate counseling services UNR has to offer, including one service, a biweekly mental health support group for undocumented students. 

“Students who are having immigration-related concerns can come to that group, and it is held in a more confidential and private space,” Najera said.

But in the state with a larger share of undocumented people than any other state in the country, state-level legal changes made over the last decade have helped students tap into state financial aid even when federal programs are out of reach.

Students typically go through Federal Student Aid, filling out an application form known as FAFSA. However, federal financial aid is restricted to U.S. citizens and eligible noncitizens. 

In recent years, the Legislature has helped create scholarships and financial aid for Nevadans regardless of legal status.

One such program is the Nevada Promise Scholarship, which was passed during the 2017 legislative session as SB391 and focused on covering the cost of community college. Students are also eligible for the state’s Millennium Scholarship regardless of citizenship status, as long as they’ve graduated from a Nevada high school and maintained a certain grade point average.

During the 2023 legislative session, Assm. Reuben D’Silva (D-North Las Vegas) sponsored AB226, which specifies that if a student has lived in Nevada for 12 months, they receive in-state tuition — a provision that helps beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) who did not graduate from a Nevada high school. The bill passed unanimously out of the Legislature.

“There are only a few states in the country that do that,” Flores told The Nevada Independent. “Nevada is a huge resource for our undocumented population.” 

Looking ahead

Many students are afraid there may be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on campus, but Flores said ICE agents haven’t been on the UNR campus and he’s determined to dispel rumors that they have. If ICE were to come to campus, they would have to notify UNR’s police department and then the university’s legal counsel would be involved. 

“If we have federal law enforcement [that] has proper documentation, we're not in a position to say no, but they're not just going to randomly show up on campus,” Flores said. 

ICE officers were previously not allowed to arrest individuals at sensitive locations such as schools and churches — but the Trump administration scrapped that policy. In response, Assm. Cecelia González (D-Las Vegas) introduced AB217, which would prohibit ICE officers from accessing K-12 campuses without a warrant or court order. Though the bill doesn’t include higher education institutions, ICE officials would still need the proper legal authorization to access UNR’s campus.

Flores added that UNR has a great relationship with UNLV’s immigration clinic, where law students practice immigration law in the real world, providing free legal services to people who are at risk of deportation. 

“They have been great. When we have specific cases or concerns from students, they’ll jump on a call and kind of walk through [with] the student what options they might have depending on what their situation is,” Flores said. 

Abigail Haduca, a student intern for Najera, feels faculty are also more mindful of students during this time. If students aren’t feeling the effects of the current administration’s stance on immigration, she said, then that’s a “privilege within itself.”