Every morning is a walking nightmare. There is nothing more dreadful than witnessing the criminalization of my Latino community — people turned into suspects under a system fueled by prejudice. While my classmates move through campus without fear, I spend my days tracking immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. I am not alone. 

For many students, the dread of becoming another statistic in an unconstitutional deportation never fades. 

To simply be a student seems impossible. Every day, we watch as United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents laugh at people who dare to uphold their right to defend against unreasonable search and seizure. People are told they have no right to dignity and constitutional protection. Immigration officers have shattered car windows, mocked families, and violated the Fourth Amendment under unreasonable searches and seizures. It’s clear that cruelty is a part of their job. 

As a Latina, someone who speaks Spanish and whose identity is visible before I even open my mouth, that weight is felt every day. The question is clear: How can the University expect student wellbeing to remain intact when our communities live under surveillance? 

This is not normal. For years, students have pleaded with the University to recognize that fact and respond accordingly. A student’s education cannot exist separately from the violence that surrounds their community — as admission is not merely a path to graduation. 

In 2019, Improving Dreams, Education, Access, and Success — now the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly — proposed the creation of a dream center, a centralized resource space for undocumented students. Alongside a dream center, the group demanded mental health and career service resources. 

Over five years later, the University has yet to make that vision a reality. Despite repeated petitions and proposals, the administration continues to delay. 

To its credit, USC has established the First Generation Plus Success Center, a space welcoming first-generation, former foster youth, transfer and undocumented students. But that initiative alone cannot meet the scale of what undocumented students have faced, as a space hosting four underrepresented communities cannot provide individual support for undocumented students. 

At a time when immigration enforcement has intensified, this level of institutional inaction feels like an abandonment.

This intensified enforcement was felt heavily by immigrant and international students in 2025, when intentional student visas were revoked en masse and deportations expanded nationwide. Many students turned to the Gould School of Law’s Immigration Clinic for support. However, the clinic has turned to asking for community donations and is in the process of hiring another staff attorney, all while some University faculty and staff members rake in multi-million dollar salaries. 

These priorities are shameful. When you take a look at the highest-paid employees in 2025, like football Head Coach Lincoln Riley, former men’s basketball Head Coach Andy Enfield and former President Carol Folt, you have to wonder: Why does a football coach’s paycheck outweigh student safety resources? It’s at least worth an ask.

For years, the University has been well aware of student activism but has turned a blind eye. Student activism is critical to protect undocumented individuals — for example, in May 2025, there was a Boston University incident where a student said he provided ICE with tips in the Boston area, according to CBS News. This led to nine individuals being detained in a raid on a car wash. With the support of the dream center, situations like this can be minimized. 

“I’ve been calling ICE for months on end,” Zac Segal posted on X, according to CBS News. “This week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals. As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be here.”

This horrifying example raises urgent questions for our own campus: What happens if a Trojan reports another student to immigration authorities? Where does USC stand then? According to University policy, it will comply with government warrants and subpoenas to not harbor an individual.   

With the rise of brutal immigration enforcement across the nation and in sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, the University has a duty to prepare. This time, not with a statement, but by providing direct mental health coordinators to respond to students’ well-being. It must protect the safety and dignity of every student while confronting the reality that fear has become an everyday part of life for many students. 

The demand for a dream center is clear, with UTSA continuing to collect signatures to present a student demand for a resource center. But initial steps have yet to come to fruition and must come soon.

USC has had years to respond, to invest in the Immigration Clinic, to develop strategies and most importantly, create a physical space where undocumented students can seek resources. Those opportunities have come and gone, and not for lack of awareness, but because the University has chosen inaction. 

The fear will not end soon, and escalation in immigration enforcement will continue within the perimeters of campus. Time will only tick, and the conversation is never too late. 

Disclaimer: Heydy Vasquez formerly served as the Executive Director for the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly but is no longer affiliated with the organization.