Asylum seeker Andrea Baltadano readies transfer to Sacramento State

Nicaraguan asylum seeker Andrea Baltadano left home in April 2024, enrolled at San Joaquin Delta College, and rose through the journalism program to lead The Collegian. Now she has an acceptance letter from Sacramento State for a fall transfer, even as her asy

In Andrea Baltadano’s life, the calendar has never been simple.

From April 2024. when she left Nicaragua as an asylum seeker. to August 2024. when she found her way into a California classroom. her education has moved under pressure. She speaks about it with the careful honesty of someone who knows how quickly safety can vanish—under an increasingly repressive political regime at home. and with fears of retaliation tied to her work as a student journalist and protester.

Baltadano didn’t rush into the United States with a clear plan to resume her journalism degree immediately. With few options. she immigrated in April 2024. keeping her goal on the back burner as she tried to avoid the very consequence she worried about most: being targeted by a government not known for protecting its citizens. Returning to Nicaragua was “improbable. ” she said. but she still hoped she could eventually go back to school in a safer place.

That chance arrived in August 2024. With family in California. Baltadano was encouraged to apply for humanitarian parole under President Joe Biden’s plan to create legal immigration pathways for up to 30. 000 immigrants per month from Cuba. Haiti. Nicaragua and Venezuela. After settling with her aunt in the Central Valley, she began applying for asylum.

Her college life started at San Joaquin Delta College. She joined the journalism program. became a staff reporter. and eventually served as editor-in-chief of the college’s paper. The Collegian. She describes the momentum as hope—something earned after leaving behind the constant risk of speaking out back home.

Recently, that hope turned into a new step. Baltadano received an acceptance letter from Sacramento State. She will transfer in the fall to major in political science and journalism.

“I’m really happy and thankful to be here, but if I had the chance to stay in Nicaragua and fight for my country and make it better — without my life, my security or my family being threatened — I would have stayed there,” she said.

For Baltadano, the next chapter is also a test of a different kind: not whether she can study, but what status will allow her to afford it.

She is “technically not undocumented,” yet being an asylum seeker has complicated her transfer process. She is not alone. Across California, undocumented students and asylum seekers must navigate extra hurdles.

There is no federal law requiring students to state their immigration status on college applications, and students can be admitted without a Social Security number. But that gap can shut doors on benefits—most notably federal financial aid.

Baltadano said her decision-making came down to eligibility for state programs. Immigrants. including people in her situation. are still eligible for certain state aid programs if they’ve completed three years of attendance or the equivalent credits in California schools. She gave her immigration status so the school could tell her what financial aid she could apply for.

For her, the problem is that the status of her asylum application has put her in limbo. That limbo, she said, has made her ineligible for federal financial aid. She also doesn’t qualify for assistance under the California Dream Act because she hasn’t met the attendance requirement for a nonresident exemption under Assembly Bill 540.

Living in California has made disclosure feel safer, she said, even as federal pressure has intensified. Baltadano described the state’s sanctuary designation as shelter: “I feel very sheltered, and I feel very protected in California because it’s … a sanctuary state.”

But she knows that protection isn’t universal.

Since his inauguration in 2025, President Donald Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement. In August 2025, the State Department revoked more than 6,000 visas for international students, citing concerns about “violations of U.S. law and overstays.” The Department of Homeland Security also rescinded long-held guidance limiting immigration enforcement in “sensitive” areas, including schools.

Baltadano said orders like those are especially upsetting given the circumstances that lead many immigrants to leave their home countries in the first place.

“Most of us are not here because we want to be here or because we just woke up and said, ‘Oh, let me start again in another country,’ ” she said. “Most of us carry stories and other situations that have influenced us to leave the country that we know.”

As she prepares to transfer, her ambition is still tied to journalism—only now the story feels closer to the institutions shaping her daily life. She hopes to become a political reporter, inspired by the circumstances in the United States and back in Nicaragua.

“I love this country so much. I want to sit here and make it better, and it hurts me to see what’s happening right now because I see echoes of what happened in my country,” Baltadano said. “And now I feel that I am here, it’s like a sign … for me to stay and … fight.”

Her acceptance letter points to a future in classrooms and newsroom beats. Yet her asylum application status still pulls at the edges of that future, leaving the practical question of how to continue paying for school tangled with the broader decisions being made about immigration enforcement.

If education is supposed to be a route forward, Baltadano’s journey shows how often it can also become a waiting room—one where a student’s progress depends on paperwork, policy, and timing.

Raina Dent is a third-year student at UC Berkeley studying political science and is a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.

Andrea Baltadano asylum seeker Nicaragua Sacramento State San Joaquin Delta College journalism program The Collegian political science humanitarian parole Biden plan financial aid federal aid California Dream Act Assembly Bill 540 sanctuary state immigration enforcement international students visas