Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz undocumented students and their supporters spoke out against President Donald Trump’s attacks on the immigrant community in a march and rallies on Tuesday. They also announced a list of demands, such as providing immediate access to emergency funds and establishing a permanent physical space on campus for undocumented students, directed to UCSC officials.
UC Santa Cruz undocumented students and their supporters held a rally and marched on campus Tuesday to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration policies and to demand the university provide more resources, like guaranteed housing, for undocumented students.
“On behalf of all my peers, even of all my documented peers, we’re really tired, we’re really stressed, we’re hungry,” a fourth-year transfer and undocumented student at UCSC told Lookout. Out of fear of deportation, she requested anonymity for this story.
About 200 students, faculty and their supporters heard speeches at the Academic Resource Center at 11 a.m. then marched to Quarry Plaza for a second round of speeches, before proceeding to the base of campus just before 1 p.m. Students and faculty denounced Trump’s attacks on immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community and called on the university to meet their demands.
The fourth-year transfer student, like many of the students who participated in the events on Tuesday, is a member in student-led organizations like El Movimiento and IDEAS that helped organize the march and rallies. Both organizations advocate for Latine, Chicanx and undocumented staff and students on campus, while IDEAS is focused on supporting undocumented students. UCSC Students for Justice in Palestine also supported the march.
UC Santa Cruz, like many colleges and universities across the country, doesn’t track the immigration status of students; however the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration estimates there are more than 400,000 undocumented students enrolled in higher education institutions. The alliance, a collaboration of college and university leaders, advocates for policies that support immigrant, international and undocumented students.
Weeks after President Donald Trump began his second term, including the start of his deportation campaign promise and continued rhetoric against immigrant communities, UCSC officials reaffirmed their support in a Feb. 3 statement for the university’s undocumented community and provided a list of resources, such as legal services and how to respond if federal immigration officials come to campus. UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout via email the university isn’t aware of “any immigration actions” on the campus like officials issuing warrants or apprehending people.
“We are dedicated to the ideal that all students, regardless of immigration status, have equal access to a UC Santa Cruz education,” the university declared in its statement.
Last week, Lookout reported on what appeared to be the first deportation in the Santa Cruz area, of a handyman who lived locally for 22 years. UCSC undocumented students say they’re fearful and anxious, and they’re demanding that the university do more to support them in light of Trump’s policies.
“We want these demands to be met exactly because of what Trump is doing and what Trump is saying about our undocumented communities, and not just our undocumented, but brown and Black people in general,” Ph.D. candidate Raul Meneses told Lookout.
They say the university isn’t doing enough, and it can do more. On Tuesday morning, the organizers read out loud a list of demands for the university that they say they started working on last year.
The demands include:
- create a permanent space for undocumented students;
- provide guaranteed housing;
- offer funding and work opportunities;
- provide secure basic needs items and food;
- train staff and faculty on undocumented experiences and state, national policies impacting them; and
- provide immediate access to emergency financial help.
University spokesperson Hernandez-Jason didn’t respond to questions via email about whether the university administrators had seen the demands and declined to specify how many undocumented students attend UCSC.
Organizers third-year transfer Karina Davila, Meneses and the fourth-year undocumented student told Lookout that students have been making similar demands for more than a year.
“I do not think the university is supporting undocumented students to the extent that it’s possible for this university to do,” said Davila, “and honestly, even to the most basic necessities that undocumented students need.”
Davila said students spent months emailing leaders of the organizations focused on providing services to undocumented students, the Undocumented Student Services office and the Educational Opportunity Programs, about the demands.
The program leaders, she said, are sending them only immigration information and resources. Davila said she’s planning to send the list of demands to Chancellor Cynthia Larive.
Meneses said if these demands are met, they’ll have a great impact on the lives of undocumented students. Meneses, 43 and originally from Mexico, said he was undocumented for 29 years. He moved to the United States when he was about 10 years old. He said for the majority of his higher education experience, he was undocumented.
He said the demand that meant the most to him was training for staff and faculty about state and federal policies affecting undocumented students.
“That resonated with me, because growing up I had to be the one educating the staff about what my experience was,” he said. “They would ask me, ‘If you don’t qualify for FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), what are you doing [to pay for school]?”
Meneses said he started his undergraduate degree before California implemented Assembly Bill 540 in 2001, which allowed eligible undocumented students to waive nonresident status and pay the California, or in-state, tuition. He had to work to support himself through school, which he said caused him to take 16 years to finish his undergraduate degree.
For comparison, for the 2025-26 school year, it costs over $45,000 a year to attend a University of California school for a California resident. For nonresidents, it costs more than $80,000.
Meneses was one of several people to address Tuesday’s gathering outside of the Academic Resource Center near McHenry Library. Speaking into a microphone, he said they were there to show undocumented students that they belong in the university classroom and because they refuse to stay silent.
“We, the students of UCSC Santa Cruz, are calling on our university to enact real tangible policies that protect undocumented students,” he said. “Our demands are clear … UC Santa Cruz has the power to implement these demands and we won’t stop until they do.”
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