The United States federal government was shutdown between December 22, 2018 and January 25, 2019, and it has been dubbed the longest shutdown in US history. The issue? Border security. For many college students, the Trump administration as a whole presents a challenge, when it comes to the plans and policies initiated.

I spoke with Mark Bearden, an 18-year-old freshman here at Mercer majoring in general business and finance. Bearden is a member of the Mercer College Republicans. He talked about how Republicans and Democrats are fighting on the issue of border security.

“We’ve seen that both sides are very, holding fast onto their ideology on what needs to be done at the border. I think Republicans have been willing to compromise with Democrats on several key issues such as DACA. Unfortunately we haven’t seen anything happen with a really good compromise,” says Mark Bearden.

Border security and immigration issues are, of course, national problems, but Bearden localizes the problems to the Mercer community.

“How it affects students here at Mercer is they have to, these students who are members of DACA, they have to live in fear of being deported, and that’s unfortunate, but the United States is governed by laws, so it’s only what the government is trying to do. Their trying to enforce the law. I think it’s up to the supreme court what’s going to happen,” says Bearden.

Bearden pinpointed several more key issues that relate to college students. The second is about FAFSA and financial aid.

“With the government shutdown recently happening, we saw a lot of students, especially here at Mercer University who could not get financial aid from the federal government, and they couldn’t sign up for classes. It sort of slowed everything down,” says Bearden.

The third issue Bearden pointed out is about planned parenthood. He mentioned that the Trump administration recently announced that they were going to cut funding to the organization.

“Currently the government gives them about $60 million a year. There are some students here that do take some of the medication or services that planned parenthood offers, such as abortion and whatnot,” says Bearden.

If there is a way to change any of the issues Bearden outlined, whether it’s dealing with border security, DACA, financial aid or planned parenthood, that way is by voting. In the meantime, let’s not let these polarizing issues divide the Mercer community.

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