New Campus Office Opens Doors for Immigrant Students and Families, Offering Resources

Katherine Fragoso, Guest Writer 

Note: This article was written for Writing For Media, with Dr. Emily Stones and in collaboration with Delia Greth, Academic Success Coach at RU, and Karlett Eguiliz, Financial Aid Counselor at RU. 

Student activists at Regis University have launched a new initiative aimed at supporting immigrant students and their families.The Student & Family Immigrant Resource Center, located in Main Hall 343, officially opened Tuesday, February 4.

The Center, a project created by the student, faculty and staff-run Undocumented Student Resource Alliance + (USRA+), provides essential resources and a welcoming space for immigrant individuals, including those from mixed-status families. USRA, originally a small group that met weekly in various locations around campus or via Zoom, has officially opened up this office space. Their help to open up a resource center marks a significant milestone for the organization.

It is designed to help students navigate the challenges of their immigration status while fostering a sense of community and belonging. The center offers a variety of services and resources to support students, including academic assistance, mental health services, legal referrals, and assistance with finding and applying for scholarships.

“We want to make sure undocumented, DACA, refugee, immigrant, and ESL students have a voice here at Regis,” said Karlett Eguiluz, a USRA member. “The center is a place where these students can find support, guidance, and resources, and where faculty and staff can learn how to better serve them.”

Eguiluz emphasized that, while the center is small, its impact is powerful. The team behind the project is made up of dedicated students, faculty and staff who are committed to helping immigrants and displaced students and families during difficult times.

“Each person at the center comes from different areas of campus,” Eguiluz explained. “We bring our diverse skills and knowledge to make sure students have the help they need. And if we don’t have the answers, we will look in our networks to find resources for them.”

The center’s soft launch on February 4 featured a community gathering designed to provide comfort and support for students who faced difficulties due to their status. The event showed an empathetic campus environment and support, while being sociable and welcoming. They advised no one should have to go through these issues alone. The event was informative but also exciting. They provided snacks and desserts at no cost plus plenty of creative activities. 

As the national climate surrounding immigration policy remains tense, the Student & Family Immigrant Resource Center has become even more crucial for the Regis community. With many individuals in the community facing uncertain futures regarding their status, the Center is dedicated to providing a safe space where students and their families can find the support they need.

The Center's launch is part of a larger movement at Regis University to offer solidarity and resources for marginalized populations. As the program continues to grow, members of USRA+ are hopeful that it will make a lasting difference for students and their families.

USRA+ wants to make sure that everyone, regardless of their immigration status, knows they have a place here at Regis.  For more information or to get involved, students and families can visit the center in Main Hall 343 or contact the USRA+ members directly. USRA+ also has an email which is regularly monitored. monarch@regis.edu

Trump’s Executive Orders Target Immigrants

Caleigh Montoya, Staff Writer

Upon taking office on January 20th, 2025, one of President Trump’s first orders of business was cracking down on immigration. Titling the executive order, “Protecting The American People Against Invasion”, Trump’s blatant attack on immigrants is clear. Naming immigrants as invaders, aliens, and a threat to public safety in an executive order delivered straight from the white house to all of America displays Trump’s racism seeping into our politics. Let’s dive into how he has fulfilled this executive order into his presidency thus far.

On his first day in office, he had the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest 308 migrants to fulfill his promises to his voters and supporters. By February 3rd, 2025, Trump had 8,768 migrants arrested. This number has continued to grow rapidly under Trump’s presidency. Deporting and displacing thousands of migrants, the majority of which are undangerous, is causing many immigrants who have built their lives here, worry and fear.  

Although ICE is not legally allowed to enter your home without a warrant, detain children without their guardians, or detain you in certain areas, it seems as though their legalities have been dismissed. ICE has been targeting migrant communities, forcing themselves into their homes, arresting children, and targeting schools and hospitals. This is illegal and inhumane! 

For more information on ICE and your rights, and for guidance on how to navigate this political time, use the resources below:

Know Your Rights: If You Encounter ICE

Denver Immigrant and Refugee Resources

What To Do When Interacting with ICE

What To Do If ICE Approaches You

ICE NOT WELCOME: Verify, Document, and Report

Butterfly: A Poem of the Unspoken Traumas of Immigration for the “American Dream”

Adriana Gonzalez-Ibarra, Staff Writer 

I remember the first time I took flight and I didn’t expect the wind to push against me as hard as it did on that September morning.

I was told by others before me that the wind was supposed to guide me in the direction that they had called the “American Dream” 

We have flown over 265 miles and this was just in one day. We have more than two months left before we make it to this so-called dreamland where we are welcomed with love and compassion. 

But this journey is not easy in the slightest way possible because the sun has gotten to the point where its burning parts of our wings making it harder to fly and some have fallen into the river and never made it out of its currents then others gave out after the heat had gotten to them and never made it past the desert. 

Yet for the ones that made it we noticed that we weren’t the only ones flying in this foreign land known as the American Dream there were other butterflies flying as if they knew our struggle. 

Their wings resemble that of our own but then I realized that they were moths and the words they were telling had become bittersweet. 

Those words at first were welcome to your new home we can’t wait to see the dream you achieve then turned bittersweet to the point that it was nothing but “ Go back to your country” “This is America you speak English” “you don’t belong here” “you are the reason we have criminals in this country” 

After so long those words become nothing but white noise behind the sound of the wings against the cages they had placed us in 

I never would have thought I would see myself separated from the kaleidoscope of those who I had known as home

Then not to mention those born on this dreamland never knowing the beauty of their parents’ homeland because they can never return without the permission of the moths 

Yet we as legacies for a better life found a way to fight for not only ourselves but those who have had their wings cut and make them heard from beyond the white noise 

Because if the “American Dream” is who they say they are, why is it that they continue to look at us as if we don’t exist in their melting pot of diversity and the dream of a better life.

The Infamous Kafala System in Saudi Arabia

By Danny Gonzales-Hyde, Staff Writer

On November 4, I spoke with a Saudi Arabian national named Yahya about the kafala system in Saudi Arabia. The kafala system is a legal system that gives the employers almost complete control of their employees, who are migrant laborers. This system provides cheap, controllable labor for the employer, since the migrant workers lack protections that other workers enjoy. Consequently, this has resulted in poor working conditions for the migrants and, in extreme cases, the abuse of the migrant workers by their employers. 

Saudi Arabia isn't the only country with a version of the kafala system, it also operates in a variety of other countries in the Persian Gulf Coast region such as Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and others. Yahya had once employed kafala migrants before the Saudi Crown Prince announced in March 2021 that he would be making major changes to the system. These changes make it easier for the employee to change employers, while also making it possible for the employee to leave the country temporarily and then re-enter. Nevertheless, all these newly granted worker rights would need to be approved by the Saudi government on an individual case.

Kafalas in Saudi Arabia are mostly from poorer countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Lebanon and their salary is based on the migrant worker's country of origin. For example, Bangladeshis, such as the kafala who works in Yahya’s apartment complex, would receive some of the lowest pay while Lebanese people would receive some of the highest pay. While kafalas are employed, they are subjected to do whatever labor their employer demands of them, regardless of their own wants or needs, in exchange for being taken care of by their employer. I asked Yahya what he provided for his kafalas and he said that besides basic housing accommodation and a salary, he also pays for the kafalas’ flights in and out of the country. When I asked about how easy it would be for a kafala to leave if they wanted to, he told me that if he wanted them to stay, they would because he was in possession of the kafalas IDs and passports which would be necessary to leave. This is common practice for the kafala employers. Furthermore, when I inquired about the living conditions provided for the kafala he employs in his apartment complex, he said that he is provided with his own private living space with both a private bathroom and kitchen. Yahya claimed that this particular kafala migrant buys Pepsi and other beverages and then resells them to the construction workers across the street who are also the kafala’s main friends according to Yahya. 

Oftentimes in the workplace, the employee and employer don't always see eye to eye for a variety of reasons. For Yahya and his kafala, their arguments usually involve differing opinions about the most efficient way for work to get done, nothing that would be punishment worthy. When I inquired about what kind of actions would be punishment worthy and what that punishment may look like, Yahya recounted a story of a male Bangladeshi worker who had gone to Yahya’s uncle's house to look at the girls’ party and after being caught, they brought him back to Yahya’s house. Upon arrival back at Yahya’s house, they invited all the Pakistani and Indian workers who lived in the same housing accommodation to watch as they proceeded to beat the man's feet with a wooden stick. Yahya claimed that such offenses like this one are justifiable reasons for punishment. When asked about the drawbacks of employing a kafala migrant after the recent reforms, Yahya pointed to how he can no longer depend on the kafala to exclusively work for him, as they can now seek new employment elsewhere if so desired. 

The exploitation of the kafala migrants has put the system under much scrutiny from the international community and human rights organizations in recent years as parallels have been drawn between it and labor systems that have been discontinued such as indentured servitude, sharecropping, and slavery. The dehumanizing nature of the kafala system also leaves us with more questions than answers as to why a system like this exists in today's world. But in order to further dismantle this system, we have to ask ourselves who are the beneficiaries of exploiting the kafala migrants labor and from there we can gain a better understanding as to why it remains in place.

Nogales, Arizona Student Trip: Seeking Answers for the Border Crisis

By Danny Gonzales-Hyde, Staff Writer

Over the course of the past few years, the tension surrounding the United States' shared border with Mexico has been the center of much dispute. With this in mind, a group of Regis students organized a trip to Nogales, Arizona to learn more about immigration from Mexico and the issues surrounding the border. Along with these intentions, the trip was in memory of Jose Antonio, a 16-year-old boy shot 10 times by a border patrol agent. Jose was waiting for his brother on the Mexican side of the wall when he was shot by this border patrol agent who fired his weapon 17 times at Jose who was unarmed. During the trip, the group of students attended a vigil held by Jose's mother and grandmother for the 10th anniversary of his murder, who are fighting in the US courts in hope of getting justice for Jose. This was one of the many experiences that the group experienced over the course of the three-day trip. Other activities included going to a local market where artists sold their work, attending community events protesting the border, and a variety of other educational experiences centered around the border. 

When I attended the trip debrief on Friday Oct. 20, it quickly became apparent that the trip was emotional for everyone involved. This emotional weight started right away when the group witnessed an arrest by border patrol as they were arriving at their motel. Despite the emotional weight of the trip, the students who I spoke with after the debrief spoke of it highly. They stressed the value of experiencing what it's like in a border town, along with hearing the stories of those most affected by the division it makes between communities. One such instance of this was them seeing families talking with one another through the chain link fence that divides the two countries. They also expressed their hope for Regis to continue this trip as a way of spreading awareness of the issues surrounding the border and its effects. The group communicated a few ways in which they hope for the trip to improve, such as providing emotional support after the trip as well as making the trip more known to the student body. This trip is just one of the ways in which Regis students have been working towards justice along the border and the treatment of Latino communities in the United States. 

It is also worth noting that the students who went considered the trip a continuation of their work, as they do a range of different kinds of advocacy work around the border and its detrimental effects on migrant communities. I asked one of the students to provide a short description of their work in their own words: 

Alondra Gonzalez - When coming to Regis I realized that I could finally start doing more work with my education surrounding since it’s a space for more open conversation. In high school, I had to seek out school resources since much of the work I did back then was around school to prison pipeline. I started doing more work around these issues with USRA, focusing on what Regis needs to do better for mixed status students and how we help as a student body. Ever since I started working with the CSL office, I’ve become a part of organizing the yearly vigils we hold at the GEO detention center around immigrants' lives lost during their journey and in detention. During the spring semester, I volunteer with servicios de la raza with the youth leadership program, and we discuss issues around identity, race, and immigration. In specifics to knowing their rights and any other questions we feel like our places of public education systems can’t answer. I want to do much more work surround immigration, so I feel like a lot of the work I do now is just a small step in the right direction

With DACA in Limbo, Students Fear Deportation

Photo source: abcnews.com

By Emily Summers, Practicum Reporter

Denise Maes, public policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, visited Regis University in November to discuss the current issue of immigration in our country. Maes addressed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as well as the Zero Tolerance Policy, with hundreds of students, faculty, and community members in the St. John Francis Regis Chapel. 

Maes first shared the stories and experiences of a few DACA students, and explained the situation many students of similar circumstances are facing: the fear of deportation. She discussed the changes the United States has faced under the current administration and described DACA as “in limbo.” Maes stated that she is not confident that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of DACA. 

She went on to further discuss immigration, specifically surrounding the Family Separation Policy in the U.S. After Trump’s executive order for a Zero Tolerance Policy, about three thousand children who had crossed the border into the United States were separated from their families. Maes explained the effects this separation had on these children.

“Every single child advocacy group … agrees that we have caused irreparable harm and trauma to these kids,” Maes said.

Following Maes, Regis faculty member Allison Peters read an anonymous story on behalf of a current Regis student. This student’s story depicted her life as an undocumented student in the United States. Growing up, this student explained her life, as an undocumented immigrant was full of fear and uncertainty. During her time at Regis, the student had received multiple threats, including death threats. Despite these obstacles, she has remained fairly optimistic.

“My story is one of thousands, but we are here, working for a better life, allies for those who stand for what is right. I, too, am a Regis student,” said Peters, reading the student’s remarks. 

Two Regis alumni also spoke to the group about their experiences as undocumented students. Each person had a unique story.

The event soon turned toward questions and answers between the speakers and the audience. 

The event, which was part of Social Justice Week on campus, stimulated conversation within the Regis community. Hearing the true, first-person stories from former undocumented immigrants themselves shed light on an incredibly relevant issue in our world today.