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Student ‘researches and writes poems about themes of dictatorship’

A graduate student in Spanish and gender studies is worried she will not be able to finish her 11th year of college here in America due to the president’s immigration policies.

University of Iowa doctoral student Oriette D’Angelo first came to the country in 2015 on a student visa. In addition to her doctorate degree, set to be finished in 2026, D’Angelo is pursuing a “Graduate Certificate in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies,” according to her university bio.

But that could all be for naught if President Donald Trump begins deporting Venezuelans who have “Temporary Protected Status” visas, which D’Angelo (pictured) has held since 2020. The Trump administration revoked her visa in January but she obtained an international student visa in April.

As a result of her fear, D’Angelo “told her friends she would mail them her notebooks of poems if she had to go back to Venezuela,” according to the Chicago Tribune. “It would be almost impossible to start over,” she said.

“As a student who researches and writes poems about themes of dictatorship, she is heartened by the separation of powers in the United States, but said the federal government’s often contradictory language in this moment feels dangerous,” the Tribune reported.

However, she is still in “survival mode” because the State Department is reviewing social media of foreigners to ensure they are not hostile to the country.

A conservative commentator raised issues with D’Angelo’s story, however.

Mark Tapson wrote in FrontPage Magazine:

With all due respect, someone who came to the United States over ten years ago to study poems about themes of dictatorship, who spent years getting a degree in a language she already speaks, who wants an academic career but still hasn’t finished her dissertation, is not a serious intellectual but a “perpetual student” simply sponging off American largesse. Meanwhile, what does she have to offer her adopted country in return? It’s not unreasonable to ask what potential immigrants to America bring to the table.

Tapson  added:

This entire emotionally manipulative Chicago Tribune piece about a woman who is in zero danger of being deported is designed to stir compassion for all the supposedly innocent victims of Donald Trump’s purportedly racist immigration cruelty. The media don’t want you to know the truth, which is that the Trump administration is simply enforcing immigration law (something the Biden administration actively ignored) to protect American citizens and sovereignty (something that doesn’t even appear on the Democrat party’s list of priorities).

“We just want to be a nation of laws with a secure border – a commonsense expectation that sends the Democrat Party into a frenzy of outrage because it frustrates their goal of one-party hegemony,” Tapson concluded.

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: University of Iowa graduate student Oriette D’Angelo; University of Iowa

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