The DACA program grants people who were brought to America illegally by their parents temporary amnesty from deportation, and also allows them to receive work, education and acquire driver’s licenses.
By rescinding DACA, over 800,000 people will be put at risk of deportation. The announcement, delivered on Tuesday, Sept. 5, resulted in outrage among the immigrant community, as well as elsewhere in the country and on campus.
Dr. Abel Rodríguez, director of Cabrini’s Center on Immigration, lead an open forum discussing the rescinding of DACA. Per Rodríguez, after September 6, no new DACA applications will be accepted. Once DACA expires, recipients of the program will be vulnerable to deportation.
In a letter to the campus community, Cabrini President Donald Taylor expressed his thoughts about the situation.
“Cabrini University believes that DACA should be renewed to protect the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients who would be at risk of deportation without DACA protection,” Taylor wrote. “Having been raised and educated here, most DACA recipients consider America their home, and uprooting these young people would cause them irreparable harm.”
“Be assured, Cabrini University will do whatever we can to protect all of our students and we will continue to update the campus as we learn more in the weeks and months ahead,” Taylor said.
Rodríguez also expressed a similar idea. His message to any Cabrini students that are currently recipients of the DACA program is as follows:
“Cabrini is and will be your home. DACA expiring will not impact your financial aid. The Center on Immigration will continue to provide further information,” Rodríguez said.
President Trump gave an attempt to reassure DACA recipients through tweeting.
“For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about — No action!” he tweeted.
