APLU Urges Swift Congressional Action to, At a Minimum, Codify DACA Provisions into Law

Washington, DC – Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) President Peter McPherson today released the following statement regarding the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in six months.

“With the Trump administration’s announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will immediately cease accepting new applications and will soon discontinue renewals, Congress is now on the clock. As I noted in a letter sent this past weekend to House Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, House Minority Leader Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Congress must take swift action to pass legislation that, at a minimum, codifies the provisions of the DACA program into law.

“The decision to end the DACA program without a clear legislative solution in place unquestionably creates great uncertainty for the roughly 800,000 young people currently enrolled. Congress must assuage those concerns by quickly coming together in bipartisan fashion to deliver a legislative solution that ensures, at a minimum, the provisions of the DACA program continue uninterrupted. Doing so would at least ensure the continuity of the deferred status protection and work authorization on which the young people participating in the DACA program relied when, for example, they enrolled in college. It would also allow additional young people to apply for deferred status protection and work authorization.

“Those in the DACA program were brought to the United States as minors through no decision of their own. Many of them were so young when they arrived in the United States that they cannot recall living anywhere else. The United States is their home.

“The DACA program has afforded these young people the opportunity to legally earn a living to support themselves and their families. For many of the college students enrolled in the DACA program, the work authorization enables them to pay for school as they pursue a degree with the hope of building a better future. Many of these DACA students are studying at public universities and have deeply enriched their campus communities.“