‘I can’t raise my voice’

UTRGV international students’ thoughts on the presidential election

Paulina Longoria | THE RIDER

As the country awaits the results of who will govern the next four years, UTRGV’s international students share their feelings about the election and receive advice from the Office of International Admissions and Student Services.

Coming from 57 different countries, 673 international students are enrolled at UTRGV.

Emerlynne Pieternella, a master of education in counseling degree graduate student and graduate assistant in the Office for Victim Advocacy & Violence Prevention, said she is scared about not knowing what is going to happen after the election.

“Since I’ve been here … I’ve been having amazing opportunities,” Pieternella said. “I was able to study here [to] get my degrees. I’ve been able to learn a lot, getting myself out there … grow a lot.”

She also said moving from Curaçao in 2014 and coming to the U.S. helped her to grow as a person and professionally and become independent. But she does not know what the future holds for international students.

“I’m just scared,” Pieternella said. “After elections, we don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I’m just waiting to know. I just want the best for America and also for us, international students, to still be able to be here, and to learn … still [have] the same benefits, like, we don’t have to stress with what’s gonna happen.”

Regardless of the election results, she said she hopes to remain as an F-1 student, to learn more, graduate in Summer II 2021 and work as a counselor for human trafficking victims to help them overcome their traumas.

“In my field … I want to work, you know, to be able to grow in what I came here to study for,” Pieternella said.

Danna Capitanachi, a mechanical engineering junior and research assistant for the College of Engineering and Computer Science, said she remains neutral regarding the elections, but feels powerless by not having the privilege of voting for the next leaders of the country.

“I’m [an] international [student] … I can’t raise my voice,” Capitanachi said. “What I try to do, more than anything, is getting my American friends and, you don’t even know how much I remind them that they have the power to do something for us. I tell them, ‘You can vote. I can’t, but you have the power to choose whomever will rule the country for the next four years.’”

She was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico and lived there until she moved to the United States in 2018 to study at UTRGV.

Asked about her thoughts about the people who do not take the elections seriously, Capitanachi replied, “I feel like the people who vote, for example, for Kanye West … I believe they should get out of their privileged bubble. The vote is important, it’s not something that you take lightly. … Literally … everyone is choosing someone who will represent their country with the rest of the world. That is a lot, those are shoes that are very hard to fill.”

She said she never says anything negative about President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden, the candidates for the U.S. presidency.

“Actually, I am here as a visitor,” Capitanachi said. “I have no right to badly treat the president because … they chose him here. It’s more like, if you’re OK, I’m OK. It’s mutual respect. You are in someone else’s house and you can’t treat the people who live there badly. That is how I like to picture it, as [an international student].”

Nora Cruz Dole, the associate director of International Admissions and Student Services, said they advise students to be careful sharing something negative about the United States government on their social media.

“What we tell our students … is that in the embassies and consulates, they ask for their social media information,” Cruz Dole said.

She also said the U.S. is a country with freedom of speech and students can express their feelings about the election results but they should reflect if sharing anything negative on social media would affect them in the future.

“We don’t know how much it could affect them, if [the U.S. government] is checking or not for that at the moment when they make a decision about … a Visa renewal, or a new Visa or when a new student comes,” she said.

Asked if there were any extreme cases where a student encountered those problems when renewing their Visa at UTRGV, Cruz Dole replied, “It has never happened at our institution, but it has in others. When we get together for conferences with other international educators, they have told us about some cases, even lawyers with whom we have spoken to, they have stated that it is possible because [the students] post a photo, something [that] definitely affected their Visa.”

Cruz Dole acknowledges the presidential election is very important for the country and for international students.

“We know you are afraid, with a lot of uncertainty since we don’t know what will happen since the administration in which we are in is proposing many changes to the F-1 program,” she said.

The Trump administration is proposing “to remove the duration of status framework that currently allows aliens in F, J and I classifications to remain in the United States for as long as they maintain compliance with the terms of admission,” according to the Department of Homeland Security website.

“What they are proposing is that they will now have a fixed period of stay,” Cruz Dole said. “So, this obviously affects them because they are making this very complicated for everyone.”

She also said a decision regarding changes to the I-94 form may be made after the election.

“Form I-94 is an arrival/departure record issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to foreign visitors to the United States,” according to the I-94 Expiration Dates PDF.

Cruz Dole said the Office of International Admissions and Student Services’ purpose is to make the students feel at home and to always support them and advocate for their benefits.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We will always advocate and fight so that the international students’ benefits are always respected. … You cannot vote. I think that the only thing you can do is express yourself, … what you feel and how you may feel affected by the changes that may happen today.”