In the days before he graduates from Northwestern University, Bryan Cárcamo has sent his parents in California photos of himself in a black suit draped in a purple gown with honor cords he plans to wear for the ceremony.
“They tell me of how proud they are of me,” he said.
Seeing Cárcamo through a screen will be the closest his parents will get to his graduation. When Cárcamo walks across the stage Sunday at the United Center to accept his diploma from Northwestern, they won’t be in the crowd.
His parents, who have been living in California without legal status, were issued notices to appear in immigration court in April and placed in removal proceedings. Since then, Cárcamo said his family has lived in a state of crisis.
His mother and father, who are not being named because of their pending case, were allowed to remain in their Compton home in Los Angeles County pending the removal proceedings. The widely publicized immigration arrests in Los Angeles that sparked days of protests across the country has added to their fear of being deported to Mexico after living in the United States for more than 25 years.
In Evanston, Cárcamo has spent his last weeks at Northwestern finishing a 100-page thesis while also becoming an advocate for his parents and trying to navigate the country’s complex immigration laws. He flew to California to be with them during their first appearance in immigration court.
“I dedicated so much time researching what are removal proceedings, what is a notice to appear, what is cancellation of removal,” Cárcamo said.
He also launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds to fight the deportations. It had raised more than $23,000 by the fifth day of the campaign.
The Latino Alumni of Northwestern University have rallied behind him, sharing the GoFundMe campaign with their contacts, and members in California are trying to coordinate a graduation watch party, said Daniel Flores, the group’s co-president. The group was trying to find a way to hold the watch party without drawing too much attention because of the escalating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests.
After learning about Cárcamo’s family, Flores said he found it unacceptable that they wouldn’t be able to attend the graduation.
“For so many of us, alumni, that’s some of the proudest moments of our life, having our parents who gave us all these different things, all the sacrifices in so many different ways and for them to see us cross the stage at an institution that wasn’t created with us mind,” Flores said.
Cárcamo’s older brother and younger sister, who is in high school, plan to fly to Chicago to attend the graduation ceremonies. But he will miss the two people who have influenced him the most.
“The two people who sacrificed so much for me to be able to come to Northwestern, and in many ways like the reason why I have continued is because of the strength that my parents have instilled in me, the hardworking ethic they have instilled in me,” he said. “That’s why I’ve made it this far. And to not have them by my side as I graduate, it just feels extremely unjust.”
Cárcamo studied political science and Latina and Latino Studies at Northwestern, and he’s considering law school or pursuing a doctorate program. In a biography published by Northwestern’s Office of the President, it lists many of his accomplishments during his four years there ranging from the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship to the Posse Summer Leadership Award. He spent his summers interning at nonprofits that work with immigrants.
His parents have never set foot on Northwestern’s campus because they feared traveling would put them at risk of deportation even before President Donald Trump started his second term, he said.
In Mexico, his parents’ education was limited to elementary school for his mother and high school for his father, he said. Their experience of living without legal status has influenced the type of work Cárcamo wants to pursue after graduation.
“I am very much interested in immigration law, so that’s what my research has focused on,” he said. “If I were to pursue a J.D. or go to law school, I’d want to be an immigration attorney, specifically to defend the most vulnerable undocumented immigrants who are facing deportations, who don’t have the resources to hire attorneys.”
The graduation celebrations will start Friday evening when the Latino Alumni of Northwestern University plans to celebrate Cárcamo and other graduates during a community celebration after the university changed identity-based graduation ceremonies, Flores said.
“It’s a tough time right now, but celebration is what keeps us going,” Flores said. “It’s the reason we fight, and it’s the end goal.”
After graduation, Cárcamo plans to fly back to California in anticipation of his parents’ next hearing in immigration court while he also figures out the next steps of his career.
“There are no words to describe what is happening,” he said. “I really don’t think it’s fair that families across the country are not able to be together, not just in graduations but in everyday life. ”