Mays: Ending access to CTE programs for undocumented students is cruel

The U.S. Department of Education’s recent decision to end access to taxpayer-supported career, technical, and adult education programs for undocumented students is not only cruel, it’s a deliberate attack on opportunity, equity, and the very foundation of the American Dream.

Let’s be clear: this move is part of a broader, deeply disturbing trend. Across the country, we’re seeing migrant communities targeted with sweeping raids, amplified surveillance, and fear-based rhetoric designed to divide and dehumanize. Policies like this don’t exist in a vacuum. They are rooted in a political agenda that scapegoats immigrants and uses fear to strip rights and resources from the most vulnerable among us.

Undocumented students are not strangers to our country — they are our classmates, our neighbors, and core to America’s economic engine. They are young people who have grown up in our communities, excelled in our schools, and dared to dream of a better life through higher education and career training programs. Cutting off access to adult education programs, postsecondary career and technical education programs, and dual enrollment programs derails individual aspirations and undercuts workforce development at a time when our nation is facing labor shortages in critical fields like healthcare, education, and skilled trades. This decision raises barriers even higher for undocumented students who are already barred from accessing federal financial aid like Pell Grants and student loans.

This is not about protecting taxpayers. It’s about punishing students. We cannot allow this moment to pass in silence. At a time when our nation should be focused on expanding opportunity on uniting across race, immigration status, and ZIP code to build a future rooted in inclusion and prosperity. This administration is choosing to weaponize policy against hope itself.

We urge policymakers, education leaders, and community advocates to be courageous and speak out. We must fight for a country where every student, regardless of where they were born, has access to the promise of education and the dignity of opportunity.”

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Augustus Mays, vice president of EdTrust, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing policies and practices that dismantle racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author. Mays can be reached by email via: media@edtrust.org

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