Vidaña Sanchez’s story is not unusual. All along the U.S.-Mexico border, hundreds of children from kindergarten on up make their way through checkpoints and guard stations each day to study. This has been happening for decades. Many, like Vidaña Sanchez, are Americans born to Mexican parents who desperately want to create a better life for their offspring and see education as the path forward. But in recent months, as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has spewed divisive rhetoric—vowing to build a wall along the border, accusing Mexicans of being rapists—and emboldened his anti-immigrant supporters, crossing the border has become a more fraught process for some of these students. (Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has expressed support for comprehensive immigration reform, including creating a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, which is in line with President Obama’s views on the topic.)

Vidaña Sanchez said during a phone conversation that she has encountered a few people in El Paso recently who think a border wall is a good idea and that immigrants are stealing jobs. I hear what you’re saying and I respect you, she replies, but I just don’t agree. Once, she was so scared an encounter was about to turn violent that she sprinted away. Vidaña Sanchez recounted the incident with laughter, joking that her friends teased her for putting her athletic prowess to good use.

But she quickly turned serious. “I have no idea,” she replied to a question about whether things might improve after the election. “I hope it gets better after the election, because if it doesn’t…” She trailed off a little. She’d like to help her father, an engineer educated in Mexico, and mother, a cashier, come to the United States, and to see her younger cousin, born in America but spending the early years with family in Mexico, have an easier time fitting in north of the border. But she’s worried. “I’m trying to encourage as much voting as possible,” she said.

The tension at the border isn’t all new. Lines to cross are long and wait times can run several hours, delaying students and workers alike. As if relaying a minor annoyance like being cut off in traffic, Vidaña Sanchez said that sometimes “random people” on both sides of the border create “a little wall” to prevent students and others who are occasionally able to use a shorter line for regular commuters from moving forward. Their motivation isn’t necessarily racial. Often, it’s self-interest. “They just don’t think it’s fair for you to go first,” she said. “I try not to let it stop me or bother me.”

While the politics aren’t nearly as contentious on the northern border with Canada, even students there wonder what the impact of a Trump election would be. Ken Lambert, an American who recently spent time studying at Brock University just across the border from Niagara Falls, New York, says he’s experienced unpleasant interactions with border guards, although he acknowledges that they’re minor—comments about America being inferior to Canada, for instance. “These small jabs at each other can make living on the border uncomfortable at times,” he said. “I think that sense of bond is gone.” Lambert now lives in Philadelphia, but says friends who still live near the border say the election has intensified some of the negative rhetoric.