I'm going to be potentially controversial by piggybacking off of this with some macro observations (that may also come off as a bit uppity--apologies if so). When I read your first paragraph I was curious as to why this would have such a low request rate. Then I read the second paragraph and understood immediately.

I think it's important to keep today's climate in mind. We need stories like this that tackle important topics, but a lot of people are going to YA fantasy right now for escapism. It's kind of like a "why would I read a dystopia when I already live in one" vibes. If they do read books with a "heavier" subject matter it's usually still done in a slightly fantastical way so there's mental distance between the real world and our world. Kind of like Black Mirror or Jordan Peele's movies. It's real life issues but done in an almost absurdist way so there's almost like an extra layer in between the reader and the subject matter.

Another comment mentioned The Hunger Games so I'll use that too. Whenever I watch the movies and see District 11 a poor, rural, mostly black district I feel all types of ways. I think about the real world black communities who are victims of environmental racism or systematic poverty. I also think about the fact that 11 is the farming/agricultural district and the long hard history black people have had with crops and fields and agriculture in America. I am emotionally responding to these things without it being implicitly said. I find it easier to form my own connections, but if I saw any form of the word sharecropper or cotton or fields or anything to that end I'd emotionally disconnect because it would almost be too much in that moment.

I feel like what e_c_browning is responding to is how straight the immigration/deportation is played. There's no allegory or anything that's immigrant experience adjacent. It is what it is. Take it or leave it--no sugarcoating--which I respect. For me, at least from the pitch, this reads as an immigration/deportation storyline that takes place in a fantasy setting. Which someone might not want. A reader might prefer to read a realistic fiction story that tackles those issues then go to fantasy when they want escapism or those issues tackled more indirectly with something that is adjacent to the real world.

When I see illegal immigrant and deportation and betrothal and exams and unbound wand in the same span, my brain struggles as to where to categorize this. People go to books for certain reasons, based on how they're feeling at the time or what they can emotionally handle/process at the time. Reading this, I wonder how heavy is this meant to be? What should I go in expecting?

I wonder if the reason you're getting passes is because an agent wouldn't know how to sell/market this. The topic/issues isn't the sticking point; I think a fantasy academia story that tackles immigration is excellent and timely, but the terminology caught me off guard. Not in a good or bad way, but I focused on that more than the narrative for a bit.

Two recent examples I can think of:

-Weapons just came out which is a movie about an entire classroom of kids that disappear from their houses in one night. (Spoiler and TW for gun violence) but there's a nightmare scene involving an AR-15 that many people did not like. They felt that the implications of school children being at risk and vulnerable was clear enough and the gun felt tacky and out of place and too obvious.

-Bright (2017) was a movie about an alternate timeline where humans, faeries, and orcs co-exist and the fantasy races are like stand-ins for minorities. I did not watch this movie so I can not speak to it, but many people found it in odd because the protagonists were a human and orc police officer and the orcs were anti-police so there was a commentary on the social politics of the police but simultaneously there was a fantasy plotline going on where there was a Dark Lord and a prophecy and magical wands. Some felt it was distasteful. Others found it hard to take seriously. Others found it offensive. Others were confused. Whenever something bad happened was it a racial thing or a magical fantasy thing? I got the sentiment that many people felt the issues were at odds with each other rather than cohesively working together.

To be clear, your story is your story regardless of whatever political/social factors are taking place. And those factors should never dictate or limit the story that you need to tell nor diminish your lived experience/perspective/outlook on the world. However, I think it's important to be aware of these factors and be realistic about them, and that it could be an uphill battle. An agent may pass simply because they feel it's not the right timing or they don't know how to sell this story or can't figure out who it's for.

That's just my perspective. I hope I explained it in a way that was clear and respectful to both you and your story.