When Manjot Singh first arrived at San Joaquin Delta College, he spent months sleeping in his car. An international student who entered the United States alone, Singh said he didn’t know where to ask for help, what resources he qualified for or how to navigate campus life.
“I slept seven months in the car,” he said. “Nobody told me about the Dreamer [Success] Center.”
His experience is not isolated. Across California, undocumented and mixed-status students can face barriers to higher education, including uncertainty around legal services, limited access to federal financial aid and unfamiliar campus systems.
At Delta, staff say those barriers can affect whether students stay enrolled or continue on transfer pathways. The college opened the Dreamers Success Center in October 2022 as a centralized hub for legal, academic and personal support.
A campus response designed to fill critical gaps
Located in Holt 201 and run by resource specialist Tina Leal, the Dreamers Success Center connects students with free immigration legal aid through the statewide Higher Education Legal Services partnership, along with academic support, scholarship guidance and referrals to mental health and basic needs programs.
Students described the center as a consistent point of contact in a system that can feel difficult to navigate. Marisa Vicente, a business student who first visited the center in 2023, said she arrived unsure how to enroll as a Dreamer student and submit the documentation needed for financial aid review.
“For me, this is like my second home,” she said. “When I need something I don’t know, or I’m afraid, I come here.”
The center’s development was supported by years of student advocacy and grant-funded investment. In 2018, the district expanded Dreamer support with a $125,000 California Campus Catalyst Fund grant, which trustees said was intended to broaden services — including behavioral health support, financial literacy workshops, notary services and family preparedness programming — toward the goal of establishing a Dream resource center.
In a Feb. 2022 presentation to trustees, the college reported it acquired the grant in July 2018 for a three-year period, established the Dreamers Success Center in August 2019, and said the grant ended in June 2021.
In a December 2024 resolution reaffirming sanctuary college status, the Board of Trustees directed the district to maintain and expand resources such as the Dreamers Success Center and to limit cooperation with immigration authorities, including restricting campus access without a valid warrant and not releasing student immigration information without a court order, according to the resolution language provided to The Collegian.
Evidence of impact on campus
Students said the Dreamers Success Center provides stability and direction at moments when they feel unanchored.
For Singh, the center provided access to basic-needs resources he didn’t know existed. After meeting with Leal, he said he learned how to use Delta’s food pantry, obtain a parking permit and connect with staff who could help him apply for housing assistance.
“[Leal] gave me some resources, like you have to go there and go there,” he said. “Nobody over here was my friend … she helped me a lot.”
Singh said the center’s consistency — especially during a period when his housing was uncertain — helped him remain enrolled.
“Every day was hope for me,” he said. “After two, three months, when I got the miracle, I was thankful.”
Vicente said the center guided her through early graduation paperwork, counseling appointments and academic planning. When she discovered she could not work with a certificate because she lacked a Social Security number, she said the center helped her schedule an appointment with an attorney through the legal services partnership.
“They give us importance,” Vicente said, adding that wait times for legal appointments elsewhere could stretch longer than what she experienced through the center.
She also emphasized the center’s role in community-building.
“I didn’t have friends since I graduated early,” she said. “This is my place to come study, and I meet a lot of people here.”
Why the approach works
Across the state, support for undocumented and mixed-status students varies widely among community colleges. Some campuses meet the requirement primarily by designating an UndocuLiaison or Dreamer liaison as a point of contact, including Mission College, which publishes an undocumented-student resource hub, and Gavilan College, which lists an Undocu Liaison on its undocumented-student resources page. Others operate full Dreamer or undocumented student centers with legal clinics, staff coordinators and educational programming.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office says districts are encouraged to create “safe, welcoming places” for undocumented students and that campus practices have led many colleges to create Dreamer Resource Centers and host “know your rights” clinics. Within that landscape, Delta is among the colleges that have established a more comprehensive approach, maintaining a dedicated physical center and consolidating academic, legal and basic-needs guidance in one location.
Delta’s structure mirrors practices described by more comprehensive undocumented-student programs statewide, based on campus program descriptions. Delta’s Dreamers Success Center legal-services page describes free, confidential legal services, including help with DACA renewals, immigration consultations and know-your-rights workshops. Similar centers describe pairing immigration legal support with broader student services — including Santa Monica College’s DREAM Program, which lists counseling and referrals to free immigration legal services as part of its support model.
Alonso Garcia, a senior equity program manager with the Foundation for California Community Colleges, works with campuses and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to help build and sustain undocumented-student support services across the state.
Garcia said the goal is to move colleges from short-term or ad hoc efforts to consistent, integrated support systems that students can find and trust.
“Our goal is to ensure undocumented student support isn’t dependent on one champion or one-time funding, but embedded into the fabric of student services,” he explained. “Dedicated staff or clearly defined leadership, integration into existing student services like counseling, financial aid, basic needs and transfer support, and consistent legal service partnerships with vetted providers. Those are the characteristics we see in the strongest models.”
Limitations and ongoing needs
Leal said the center has served students “in the hundreds,” but she declined to provide specific totals, citing the sensitivity of the population. She said capacity remains a challenge because the center is understaffed.
“I am so understaffed, I’m only one person.” Leal said.
She added that “there’s thousands on campus,” and that she has “only touched hundreds.”
A place to move forward
Singh said the center’s support helped him regain stability and focus academically. He said he now has housing, a 3.5 GPA and multiple certifications, and hopes to give back in the future.
“Whenever I can be a doctor in life, I will pay (Leal) back what she did for me,” he said.
For students navigating uncertainty, the Dreamers Success Center remains a place to ask questions, find guidance and stay enrolled. “If you don’t know what to do,” Vicente said, “they will guide you step by step.”
