Trump's mass deportation campaign takes a toll on college students

By — Fred de Sam Lazaro Fred de Sam Lazaro By — Sam Lane Sam Lane By — Simeon Lancaster Simeon Lancaster Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-mass-deportation-campaign-takes-a-toll-on-college-students Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio For years, researchers and advocates have documented the barriers students from immigrant families face when pursuing higher education. But the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has introduced new challenges and fears, even for many immigrants who are legally in the United States. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Minnesota for our series Rethinking College. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: For years, researchers and advocates have documented the barriers students from immigrant families face in pursuing higher education. But the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign has introduced new challenges and new fears, even for many immigrants who are legally in the U.S. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports now from Minnesota, where federal authorities carried out a sweeping immigration enforcement operation earlier this year. It's part of our series Rethinking College. Fred de Sam Lazaro: As the spring semester wound to a close, the campus of Augsburg University bustled with students. For the small private school in Minneapolis, IT was a far cry from scenes in the Twin Cities just months earlier, when Operation Metro Surge brought thousands of federal agents to Minnesota, part of a massive immigration crackdown. Augsburg sits in the heart of the Cedar-Riverside and Minnesota's Somali population. The school reflects the community, with about 70 percent students of color. Many are immigrants. Paul Pribbenow has been Augsburg's president for 20 years. Paul Pribbenow, President, Augsburg University: Students who have lived through the experience here over the past several months with the Metro Surge, clearly, that trauma has affected them. I can see it in their faces. You can actually see it, especially here at the end of our semester, the weariness, the fatigue, just the stress. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Federal officials detained three Augsburg students, including one on campus in December. Woman: A man armed with a rifle standing outside of a residence hall. Fred de Sam Lazaro: The Department of Homeland Security called the student a -- quote -- "criminal illegal alien with multiple offenses." The "News Hour" independently confirmed an arrest for drunk and careless driving. Ultimately, courts ordered the release of all three Augsburg students, but the effect of the crackdown lingered, with all campus buildings remaining locked. Eva Skipwith is a biology major at Augsburg. Born in Ethiopia, she came to the United States at the age of 1. When ICE activity