Franco Vidal: DACA Student, Peruvian immigrant

Franco Vidal is a freshman at California State University. He is also an undocumented student covered under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Winged Post: What’s your opinion on Trump’s immigration policies?

Franco Vidal: I believe that President-Elect Donald Trump needs to firmly and as soon as possible give out a firm and detailed plan as to what he plans to do as far as immigration reform. We have very limited information as to what exactly he intends to do… I know there’s bad illegal immigrants out there. Of course there’s criminals. But most of all, to put us all in a bag, that’s what’s wrong. That’s what we want to know as people. We’re not illegals; we’re simply undocumented. We want to know what’s going to happen, and whether he will be able to protect our rights—our unalienable rights.

WP: How have you seen public opinion in your community about immigration change over course of election?

FV: [California is] a very progressive blue state, and I believe among the people that I know, the community that I surround myself with, they understand that America has this immigration problem, so to say… People have come here for generations and are still struggling to become citizens. That’s the real key, that’s the real problem. There shouldn’t be an extreme solution to something so serious, and yet, on the other side, since the election came to a close and President-Elect Trump was officially going to swear in the presidency on the 20th, a lot of people, a lot of close friends who I knew, one way or another, spoke their platform, and it’s–so the difficult thing for me to grasp [that] some you’ve known since elementary school, people you’ve grown up with, and people whom  know your status, people whom have seen you, who know your family… completely rejects your way of living.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on January 24, 2017.