By Daniel Shular
The Scene staff
Protesting against injustice is a rite of passage for many college students, but Areli Munoz-Reyes is protesting to keep from being deported.
The Forest Park student is a Mexican immigrant who was brought to the United States as a child and one of about 700,000 recipients of deportation protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA.
The program was created by former President Barack Obama in 2012. President Donald Trump attempted to end it last year, but in April a federal judge ordered the government to continue offering DACA protection.
“Once the Trump administration took over, we kind of knew the risk of losing it, but that just made us resist more and unite as a community,” said Munoz-Reyes, 22, of University City.
Her resistance includes regularly carrying signs and speaking at protests as a community organizer with a group called Cosecha Missouri. “Cosecha” means harvest in Spanish.
“We fight for dignity, respect and permanent protection for the 11 million undocumented people in the United States,” she said.
Source of inspiration
Last spring, St. Louis Community College knew of 29 students with DACA protection on its campuses, but the college stopped asking for this information in April, according to Nez Savala, STLCC communications manager.
After Trump threatened to end the DACA program, STLCC Chancellor Jeff Pittman released a statement in September. He specifically mentioned Munoz-Reyes as a source of inspiration.
“Areli is one of nearly a million young people affected by this pending decision and caught between continuing life as usual or going back into the shadows,” he wrote. “Areli is not giving up. She will continue her studies and continue to lend her voice as a DACA advocate.
“The college’s core values and commitment to diversity and inclusion call for us to be vigilant and genuine when it comes to the success of our students. While we’re in the education business, we also support the ‘whole’ student.”
Munoz-Reyes also has made an impression on Layla Goushey, sponsor of the Global Studies Club and Global Education coordinator at Forest Park.
“She has done a lot,” Goushey said. “I’d say something that has impressed me about her is her knowledge of the entire DACA issue (and) the history of how legislation has progressed.
“She’s really added to discourse on campus. The conversation around immigration in general on campus, and that helps all of our students, no matter what their original perspective was. … I just admire her drive and her courage, frankly.”
Escaping poverty
Munoz-Reyes moved from Tlaxcala, Mexico, to University City with her mother when she was 8 years old to escape violence and poverty. Her father already was living in the United States and working as a line cook.
“My family crossed the border for a better life,” Munoz-Reyes said. “I don’t blame them for bringing me here. (My father) got a job and saw that it would be an opportunity for us to have a better life.”
Before DACA was established, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children lived in fear of deportation, even if they had lived in their native countries for only a short time.
DACA didn’t grant citizenship but allowed recipients to work or attend school with permits that must be renewed every two years, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
“It was a huge relief for myself, but also my parents ’cause they would always be stressed about me going out with friends, seeing a movie,” Munoz-Reyes said. “I couldn’t be a regular teenager because of that fear.
“When I applied to DACA, and Obama gave the executive order, it was such a relief,” she added. “And I think it empowered me to speak out more because I had that protection.”
Young activist
At the end of June, Munoz-Reyes traveled to Boston, partly to help shut down Suffolk County Detention Center, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding some undocumented immigrants who have been detained.
“We were there for three days, doing training, doing workshops, learning how to build movement in your local community,” she said. “I learned a lot more about Cosecha, the Harvest Movement, and what I can do here locally in Missouri to keep the momentum going.”
DACA is protected for now, but there are still obstacles for Missouri students in the program, not only from the Trump administration, but also from the Missouri General Assembly.
Senate Bill 224, which became law in 2015, required students receiving scholarships from the A+ Scholarship Program to be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. This excluded DACA students, even those who had met all other requirements. Munoz-Reyes protested in downtown St. Louis at the time.
House Bill 2003, which recently outlined the higher-education budget for Missouri colleges and universities, includes a provision that requires undocumented immigrant students to pay international tuition rates instead of in-state or out-of-state rates.
“(Chancellor Pittman) sent out a letter saying he supports DACA students, but if he really does support that, he should start talking about us paying in-state tuition,” Munoz-Reyes said.
STLCC’s in-state tuition rate is $110.50 per credit hour, which equals $2,652 for two semesters with 12 credit hours each. The international rate is $225.50 per credit hour, raising tuition to $5,412 a year.
Tough break
Munoz-Reyes will have to pay the higher rate, beginning this fall, despite the fact she has lived in University City most of her life. It’s a tough break for a student held in high regard at Forest Park.
“There are some students you love to have conversations with, and she was one of those students,” said psychology professor Gary Forde, who had Munoz-Reyes in one of his classes.
“She’s very brave to be doing all of (her activism), especially in the state of Missouri,” he said. As for DACA students having to pay higher tuition, Forde added, “Can you imagine how those kids feel? To think they did everything right.”
The STLCC Foundation has a private scholarship fund for undocumented immigrant students who meet certain academic guidelines. It could help offset the higher tuition rate.
“They’re looking for funding mostly, and so there’s a lot of foundation scholarships that we give them,” said Glenn Marshall, manager of enrollment services at Forest Park. “… We are trying to make sure we get them some information for (other) scholarships, so they can get some funding to go to school.”
Caring staff
Munoz-Reyes has found Forest Park faculty and staff to be caring and supportive, asking her for periodic updates and offering assistance. Counselor Sandra Knight has been particularly helpful because she can speak Spanish and answer questions from her parents, who don’t speak English.
Knight has dealt with DACA students who were stressed out because of family members being deported.
“The other issue of concern to them is the economic situation, the financial situation, because those students have to pay international student fees, and that creates a lot of stress,” Knight said.
“Even though we have some funding that supports them, it’s sometimes difficult for some of them to keep up with the GPA, to keep up with work and try to make money to help their families.”
Munoz-Reyes plans to major in human services and wants to keep working for a non-profit organization that helps undocumented immigrant families.
“I know the struggle because I’ve been there,” she said. “I have family members that have gone through the system. I went through the education system myself, so I know how it feels to have nobody really there for you.”