A few days before winter break, Lynda McGee, a guidance counselor at Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles Unified, received an unexpected visit from the father of a student.

The man, a warehouse worker who emigrated from Guatemala 28 years ago, wanted to make sure McGee knew his wishes firsthand.

“My daughter going to college is more important than the risk of deportation,” he said in Spanish as the student, a senior, translated.

He insisted that McGee help the teen, a U.S.-born citizen, fill out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is used by college students to calculate important financial aid packages. However, the application asks for the parents’ social security numbers, which the father does not have because he is not a legal resident. A missing number could be a warning sign about the father’s immigration status ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to track down and deport undocumented immigrants.

“Unfortunately, I have dozens of students in the same situation,” McGee said. “They have to choose between their future and that of their parents.”

Submitting financial aid forms during this college application period has become a potentially life-changing family decision for California high school graduates with undocumented parents — a dilemma many college students also face, as FAFSA forms in general must be submitted annually to determine ongoing support.

The Department of Education, which administers the FAFSA used to calculate Pell Grants, federal loans and other student aid, typically does not share immigration status data with other government agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But college counselors and financial aid support groups have recently warned students from mixed-status families, many of whom have lower incomes and could benefit most from federal aid, that risks still exist.

A recent statement from the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit student advocacy group, said higher education law “prohibits the use of data for any purpose other than determining and awarding federal financial aid.” However, it says it “cannot guarantee mixed-status students and families that information submitted to the U.S. Department of Education as part of the FAFSA process will continue to be protected.”

Daisy Gonzales, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency responsible for administering financial aid programs, also urged caution.

“We cannot speculate about what the new federal administration will do,” she said.

The concern about federal financial aid comes after more than a year of complications surrounding the FAFSA, which is typically released in October each year. A shortened version of the 2023-24 FAFSA was intended to streamline the process, but instead resulted in glitches, data entry issues and delays, leading to increasing frustration among students and families who had to wait to apply. The Government Accountability Office said the fiasco resulted in a 9% decline in first-time filings in the final academic year.

A tracker from the National College Attainment Network also shows a 9.6% decline in applications through December compared to the same point last academic year. It is unclear to what extent this is due to concerns about disclosing immigration status.

According to the Equity Research Institute at USC, approximately 3.3 million people in California live in mixed-status households. About one in five children is under 18, like the student whose father came into McGee’s office at Downtown Magnets High School.

As one of the top students in her class, the student lives with her parents in Koreatown and dreams of one day working in the film industry. She has applied to UCLA, Stanford, Cornell and several Cal States. However, she has put filing the FAFSA on hold because she fears it could harm her family.

“Why does the election of Trump mean that I, as a citizen, may have to suffer because of my parents’ decision to move to a better life in America?” said the student, who asked that her name not be used to avoid her identification parents to avoid.

Her father sees it differently. “Filling out the FAFSA may or may not harm me. But if it can help her, she should do it,” he said in an interview.

Trump has promised to begin deporting millions of illegal immigrants on “day one” of his presidency. In a recent NBC interview, he said that U.S. citizens from mixed-status households could also join their relatives to avoid “destruction of families.”

The comments, coupled with campaign promises about deportation, sparked widespread anger.

Gonzales said information submitted through the FAFSA “may be shared between federal agencies, including federal immigration enforcement.”

She also noted that the California Dream Act application is available to students from mixed-status families who need federal assistance such as Cal Grants to attend the University of California, Cal State and state community colleges.

But that proposal doesn’t provide students with the level of money, including tuition assistance, that is provided through state aid, Los Angeles-area college counselors said.

“The best way to get the most support possible is to apply for everything a student is eligible for,” said Jacqueline Villatoro, a guidance counselor at Linda Marquez High School in Huntington Park, whose students include several U.S. citizens belong to undocumented parents.

“But Trump’s election threw things into disarray,” she said. “How can we provide our families with accurate information while avoiding creating fear? A lot of us are just waiting.”

“Some parents say they still file taxes so the government already has information about their immigration status and want their children to apply for help,” Villatoro said. “Others come to us and are afraid.”

Federal financial aid is not available to students without U.S. citizenship or other governmental authorization to reside in the United States. Although the FAFSA does not specifically ask about the immigration status of the student’s parents or guardians, those without a Social Security number must go through additional steps on the application.

California colleges and universities generally recommend that students apply for state and federal aid by March 2.

That gives parents and students 41 days after Trump’s inauguration to consider whether and how immigration enforcement might affect their families.

“It’s a waiting game that causes anxiety,” said another Downtown Magnets High School student, a graduate applying to UC and Cal State as well as Wellesley College.

The student, an American citizen, requested that her name be withheld to avoid identifying her mother and father, who are undocumented immigrants from Puebla, Mexico. She plans to pursue a career as a neonatal nurse.

“As a first-generation student who does most of it on my own, figuring out how to get into college and how to pay for it is already a stressful process,” she said. “But with this FAFSA confusion and waiting, I feel like my wings are being clipped.”