A federal program that helps young people from migrant families attend colleges, including the University of Washington, is not operating this year after the Trump administration eliminated funding for migrant education.

Since 2010, the College Access Migrant Program funding UW received allowed it to send recruiters to agricultural communities across the state, including Connell High School north of Pasco. That’s where Xitlaly Mendoza, whose parents are migrant farmworkers from Mexico, learned about the program.

Mendoza said her parents wouldn’t work in apple orchards if they’d been able to finish school and go on to college.

“If my mom would have been able to finish her education, she would have definitely been an elementary teacher. That's what she dreamed of,” Mendoza said. “And then

See Full Page