Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byErika González and Noemi Castanon
Elizabeth Mazariegos flips through her folder full of school reports, letters of recommendation and college documents, feeling worried. “I never thought I could get this far, and now I feel all my effort is disappearing overnight. It’s like everything I achieved is not enough,” said Mazariegos, a 31-year-old Guatemalan who has lived in the United States for two decades.
For years, the U.S. policy of Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, protected immigrants who came here as children and allowed Mazariegos to study, work and plan a stable future. Now, that path has become more uncertain as both the state and federal governments clamp down on immigrants.
On June 5, Texas repealed the Texas Dream Act, a law that since 2001 had allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates and to have access scholarships and loans.
byRachel N. Madison
or the past two months, the University of Texas’ newly formed Graduate Workers Union has been advocating for better treatment, pay and rights of graduate student employees. And now it is joining other student groups in opposing a deal with the Trump administration that would transform the university’s governance structure.
“A union is a commitment by workers at a workplace to stand together with each other to be treated the way they deserve to be treated in terms of compensation and working conditions,” said Sociology Ph.D. student and union member Noah DiAntonio.
bySamantha Rubin
University of Texas students Monday urged administrators to reject the Trump compact on higher education and to stop a possible consolidation plan of the College of Liberal Arts they say could erase ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies and several language departments. “When I arrived at UT as a freshman, our campus looked completely different,” […]
byErika González
At 4 a.m., Yeni Renderos’ alarm went off, just like every other day. Half-asleep, she made coffee, woke her 16-year-old daughter and drove her to school before climbing into her truck, “Rosendo,” as she affectionately called it. For 10 years, that routine had defined her life in Houston, driving to construction sites, convinced her life was finally moving forward.
But that Monday was different. Renderos’ boss called to confirm what she feared most: “You can’t keep working, Yeni, she recalled him saying. “The rules for commercial licenses have changed.”