The president of Seattle University’s student government, who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child, announced his resignation on Monday. His decision to step down was made, in part, because of stress induced by the presidential election.
As the governing leader of the university’s student body, Carlos Rodriguez is required to attend weekly meetings with the university’s Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees, among other administrative bodies. As a senior public affairs major with two jobs—one with campus public safety and the other as an intern with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office—he has little time to himself. Lately, he’s had trouble sleeping. Violent dreams wake him up abruptly at night and keep him from falling back to sleep.
“I will wake up in the middle of the night just screaming for no reason,” Carlos Rodriguez told the Seattle University Spectator. “I had a nightmare that I was shot in a school shooting at SU.”
While the stress, anxiety, and paranoia associated with his status as an undocumented citizen has followed him closely for years, Rodriguez said things “became real” when President Donald Trump issued his first batch of executive orders. Namely, those which banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and initiated the process of constructing a wall along the border between Mexico and the U.S.
Rodriguez, who was born in Mexico, spent most of his childhood in Georgia. He attended five different high schools and frequently relocated as his family fled from anti-immigrant laws in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. Every time they had to move, Rodriguez said his family encountered a host of issues. He recalled when his parents were denied housing because they couldn’t provide a valid social security number.
“We got mocked and yelled at in front of people in the leasing office of this apartment building because we had to admit that we weren't citizens,” Rodriguez said. “It's just very embarrassing for that to happen.”
He and his brother, who were children at the time, could only watch and try to understand what was happening. Years later, Rodriguez experienced a similar situation in Seattle when his application for university-sponsored housing was denied for the same reason.
“If the government that I know isn't doing stuff to protect me as an undocumented person, I just don't think I can mirror, or even attempt to fix what government is like for people of color,” Rodriguez said. “As someone in student government...we're supposed to mirror what real government is like, right?”
Rodriguez will be replaced by sophomore Kate Hannick, the executive vice president of student government at Seattle University. Part of him hopes that he won’t be replaced and that the void left by his absence will show people the importance of what he does.
The 21-year-old self-declared undocumented citizen no longer believes he can create meaningful change in his current position. He plans to focus on helping other students without legal status find a way to attend college and, like him, become part of the Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrival (DACA) program.
“What difference are they gonna see if I'm just physically not present?” he asked. “Part of the reason I want to leave or am leaving is because I feel like I can't create meaningful change within student government. And I'd rather be out in the community protesting and doing things that are gonna make an impact on someone's life.”
