Immigrants learn English for free at California colleges. Under Trump, some are skipping class
Delilah Brumer
May 20, 2025
In summary
California’s ESL courses gained 30,000 students over the past six years. As the Trump administration revokes student visas and escalates immigration raids, that growth is at risk.
They speak Farsi, Cantonese, Spanish and at least two dozen other languages. Some earned master’s degrees in their home countries, while others never finished middle school. At California’s community colleges, more than 290,000 students take free, non-credit English as a Second Language classes.
As immigrants, many of these students enroll in the classes to integrate into American life, advance in their jobs, support their children or build community. The classes have grown in popularity in recent years — an enrollment bright spot for the state’s community college system, which has struggled to fully rebound to pre-pandemic student counts.
But as news of international student visa revocations and reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids during President Donald Trump’s second term spread across the state, many community colleges have seen some of these students switch to online learning, or stop showing up to class altogether.
