Student fights to gain education despite financial complications

Cesilia Rodriguez was 14 years old when her mom was first deported to Mexico. Her mom returned to Utah a year later only to be arrested and jailed for five months and then deported again. But this time it was permanent.

Rodriguez and her younger brothers were stuck moving from stepdad to stepdad until her father kicked her out of the house. By age 17, Rodriguez lived completely on her own.

Even though she was born in the United States and is a legal citizen, Rodriguez slipped through the cracks of the broken system and didn’t have a foster family to take care of her. Luckily, Rodriguez moved in with the Spencer family after she was legally an adult.

“The truest definition of family is the Spencers,” she said. “Living with the Spencers taught me how a family works.”

Melissa Spencer is essentially Rodriguez’s pseudo-mom. They met in church and Spencer hired Rodriguez as a babysitter when she was 14 years old. From there, their friendship grew, though it did experience its ups and downs. Eventually, Spencer invited Rodriguez to live with her family after living on her own.

“Even though she was 19, it was like I was raising a 12 year old,” Spencer said. “Even when Rodriguez did have a mom, she worked all of the time.”

When Rodriguez was 19, she received her high school diploma through the local adult education program thanks to support — and car rides — from Spencer.

“She would take me to class and to work even if I went kicking and screaming,” Rodriguez said.

Now Rodriguez is 22 and she is working for the Division of Family Services by helping students in similar situations go under the radar of the system. But she said she wants to make an even bigger impact for migrant families stuck in legal limbo by becoming an immigration lawyer. That means she has to go to college.

Rodriguez did attend Utah State University for a semester in 2014; she was taking her general classes. She said she loved going to school and being on campus. But she, like many other students, couldn’t afford to pay for school, so she filled out a FAFSA. It turned out to be a necessary evil that was standing in her way of fulfilling her dreams.

So far, one of the biggest issues came when she was filling out the online forms that asked for her mom’s non-existent social security number. Also, she had a hard time proving that she was living on her own without a family or in foster care.

“How do I prove that I was on my own since I was 17?” she said. “The financial aid office doesn’t understand that kids really do go under the radar.”

Rodriguez said she started filling out her FAFSA three months early. Regardless, she still missed the deadline and can’t afford to pay for school this semester, so she is working.

Spencer said it was a nightmare to get Rodriguez into school, not to mention to pay for school.

“Filling out the paperwork and filling out the FAFSA was a nightmare,” she said. “It is mind boggling that legal citizens of the U.S. have a hard time going to school.”

Rodriguez said each time she fills out her FAFSA, she has to track down her real mom in Mexico and get a notarized signature. That signature proves her mom doesn’t pay U.S. taxes, she doesn’t send Rodriguez any money and that her mom doesn’t actually have a social security number. Spencer and Rodriguez have to jump through those hoops every year just to get loans for Rodriguez.

In the end, Rodriguez’s said she was able to figure out her FAFSA difficulties, though she didn’t make it on time for the semester deadline.

“It is a marathon that I run every single time,” she said.

Spencer said the marathon discourages students with illegal immigrant parents from going to college.

“It makes me think of the kids who it isn’t as easy for,” she said. “So then what do they do? They become the next delinquent or the next criminal, because all they needed was someone to take their hand and help them figure out the federal program.”

Spencer said they don’t want people to pity Rodriguez for what she went through. Instead, they want to get the word out about how her family situation negatively impacted her educational opportunities.

“Don’t be the victim of your life,” Spencer said to Rodriguez. “You can be someone to change this. I know she can do it.”