By Ann Nordby
Edwin Torres DeSantiago (MPP ‘23) dreams big. He advocates for immigration reform, environmental protection, and paid medical leave.
He has managed and advised political campaigns for the likes of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the state’s two U.S. senators, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar.
In his personal ambitions, he aims high, too. While working full time at the public policy consulting firm NewPublica, Torres DeSantiago also worked full time to complete his Master of Public Policy at the Humphrey School.
Along the way he served as the state director of COVID outreach and gotten married. And he’s been accepted into the Humphrey School's PhD program, which he will begin in January.
Is there anything Torres DeSantiago cannot do? The answer to this question is yes: He cannot vote.
Torres DeSantiago is one of the estimated 12 million to 15 million undocumented people living in the United States, and it's illegal for them to vote because they're not American citizens. The exact number of undocumented people in the country is unknown, because they are invisible to public databases.
Torres DeSantiago is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which allows young immigrants who grew up in the U.S. to seek temporary protection from deportation and to have the ability to work.
"Policy gets created for us and about us. They restrict our access to housing, loans, the ability to live a dignified life. And yet we don't have a voice in it," he said.
Giving voice to undocumented people
How can these voices be heard? Torres DeSantiago has taken on this challenge.
In his master’s degree paper, he worked with two faculty advisors to analyze data illustrating the circumstances of undocumented people in Minnesota and Wisconsin, particularly those in the DACA program.
Their analysis showed that DACA recipients in Minnesota are more likely to finish college than those in Wisconsin. It also showed that DACA-eligible people in both states have higher incomes than their non-DACA counterparts.
That study was a first step in the research he intends to do as a PhD student. Torres DeSantiago wants to find out why those in Minnesota do better, and what policies could be replicated in other states to improve outcomes for undocumented people—and everyone else.
He and his advisors could not do this research in a straightforward way because of a lack of pertinent data.
"The databases have no filter for undocumented people. We had to take dozens of steps [analyzing the data] to arrive at what we think are undocumented people," Torres DeSantiago said.
For his doctoral work, he intends to delve into existing databases from sources such as the Department of Human Services and the Census Bureau. Finding relevant sources, and extrapolating from them, will be part of the research.
Then he will compile, clean, and analyze the data to find out how undocumented people across the country fare in areas such as health care, education, income, and criminal justice.
"If no one spends years cultivating this data, we, the undocumented people, will always be left behind," he explained.
A tough journey
Torres DeSantiago credits his parents with instilling in him and his two siblings the drive to learn and achieve. He was a small child when his family came to the U.S. in the 1990s from war-ravaged El Salvador.
As a teenager, he excelled in high school. He also learned of his undocumented status. Because of it, he would not be entitled to federal financial aid to pay for college. At many colleges, he would be barred from enrolling at all. But he found one that was a perfect fit, and even got a full scholarship. That school was the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota.
Torres DeSantiago earned his bachelor's degree there before attending the Humphrey School, where he completed his master’s degree in May 2023 and decided to continue his graduate education. He is the first DACA recipient and undocumented person admitted to the Humphrey School's PhD program.
Torres DeSantiago said the Humphrey School is a place where he is encouraged to bring his whole self.
"They allow me to be me, by not looking at me as a deficit and not [asking] 'Are you OK?' They looked at me for my brains, for what I could contribute, my past experiences, and they said, ‘Use that as a tool,’” he said. “They introduced me to concepts that I had not even heard of—structures, procedures. They gave me the tools to analyze and understand on my own."
Throughout his adult life, Torres DeSantiago has highlighted, rather than hidden, his undocumented status. He does it to draw attention to the very existence of folks who are undocumented.
As a young person, he said he saw "elected officials paint the wrong picture of who we are. I bring a different paintbrush. We are not criminal or lazy,” he said. “Very rarely are any of the people at the [policy-making] table part of the undocumented community. I want to change that."
Torres DeSantiago's future plans are even bigger.
"I want to continue doing what I do—communications messaging, policy, research, speaking at events," he said. "Who knows? Maybe when the stars are aligned I'll do a 180-degree turn and run for office. Why not? We have to change our dreams to see what is possible."
