After months of speculation and uncertainty, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration will rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, effective March 5, 2018, when DACA recipients will begin losing their status.
The planned six-month delay in terminating DACA will give Congress leeway to pass a fix through legislation that would allow the undocumented immigrants to stay in the country.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security will stop processing any new applications for the program effective immediately; all existing work permits will be honored until their date of expiration up to two full years from today.
The program, implemented during the Obama administration in 2012, protects undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children with their parents from deportation. DACA doesn’t provide permanent relief from deportation, but does give those enrolled — often referred to as “Dreamers” — a two-year work permit and social security number.
“DACA students have overcome barriers, often against the odds, have been admitted to our competitive institution and contribute greatly to our success.” – Ohio State
Over 800,000 people are currently enrolled in the program, and an estimated 10,000 DACA recipients graduate college each year, according to Educators for Fair Consideration, a nonprofit advocacy group for undocumented immigrants.
The number of Ohio State students enrolled in the program will not be released, as the information falls under FERPA protection. However, Ohio State does plan to protect those enrolled.
“We are reviewing the action taken today and its potential impacts at Ohio State,” the university said in a statement. “Our university derives great strength from bringing together outstanding students from a wide variety of backgrounds to join and build our community. DACA students have overcome barriers, often against the odds, have been admitted to our competitive institution and contribute greatly to our success.
By definition, these individuals arrived as children, have known only this country as home and have grown up working to make real the American Dream. We support them strongly and are committed to their success. We also support strongly those programs that have been established to help them achieve their goals. Ohio State is engaged in active dialogue with our peers and policymakers around the country, and we continue to closely monitor this important issue. Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff.”
The university sent a latter to Ohio’s congressional delegation Tuesday afternoon, according to the statement, “urging them to take swift action to find a bipartisan solution that will, at a minimum, codify the existing DACA policy into law.”
The decision to end DACA involves a stricter interpretation of American law, said Sessions.
“As the Attorney General, it is my duty to ensure that the laws of the United States are enforced and that the Constitutional order is upheld,” Sessions said. “To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. That is an open border policy and the American people have rightly rejected it.”
Sessions said those enrolled in DACA are not bad people, and the nation does not disrespect or demean them in any way.
“It means we are properly enforcing our laws as Congress has passed them,” Sessions said.
President Donald Trump had long promised to scrap the program, as tightening up immigration was a central theme throughout his campaign. However, his attitude toward dreamers has been sentimental as of late.
“As President, my highest duty is to defend the American people and the Constitution of the United States of America,” Trump said in a statement on DACA. “At the same time, I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.”
He has repeatedly offered support to dreamers in the program. Trump told The Associated Press in April that young people covered by the program could “rest easy” because his administration was “not after the Dreamers, we are after the criminals.
On Friday he said “We love dreamers, we love everybody … the Dreamers are terrific.”
Trump said the Department of Homeland Security will begin an “orderly transition and wind-down of DACA, one that provides minimum disruption.”
Andrew Jackson, the Undergraduate Student Government president, said while the program is set to end, DACA recipients at Ohio State will continue to be supported by the university.
“I think overall DACA students are being protected in more ways than one at Ohio State,” Jackson said. “There are provisions being put in place to make sure those students are feeling safe on campus and ensuring that the federal government can’t necessarily take away their rights as DACA students even if the program gets taken away.”
Though Jackson said he could not provide further detail on what the provisions are to be put forth or how Ohio State would ensure DACA students’ rights would not be taken away following Tuesday’s announcement, there is one relatively new resource now publicly known.
Ohio State Student Life has a full-time employee, Bowen Marshall, whose position is dedicated to working with and supporting DACA students.
President Michael Drake has continuously stood in support of DACA, signing a letter in November with 600 university presidents addressed to the then-incoming Trump administration urging it to support the program.
He said last week during a radio interview that DACA students are “really outstanding people who had overcome a lot and are really doing everything they can to contribute to the American dream, that’s why they’re called dreamers.”
While a concrete decision on what the government will do with DACA enrollees is pending, it seems as though one thing is constant — at least at Ohio State.
“[DACA] students are being protected as much as possible,” Jackson said.
Update, 9/5 at 2:29 p.m.: This article has been updated to include President Donald Trump’s statement on DACA
