President Donald J. Trump’s decision to rescind DACA Tuesday drew swift and scathing criticism from various higher education leaders, advocates for immigrants and lawmakers on Capitol Hill — but many remained hopeful that Congress would act to achieve a permanent solution for Dreamers.
John B. King, president and CEO of The Education Trust, called President Trump’s decision “irresponsible and immoral,” citing DACA’s importance in helping students attain a higher education “so they can build a better future for themselves, their families and the country they love.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric L. Richmond, D-La., called the decision “morally bankrupt” and ignorant of “what makes America great in the first place and the very people who contribute to that greatness.”
Wallace D. Loh, president of the University of Maryland at College Park, called the decision “antithetical” to the core values and missions of his institution and higher education in general.
“It penalizes law-abiding students who came to this country as infants or children and want to be contributing members of our society by studying, working, or serving in the military,” Loh said. “Ending legal protection for these young people, before enacting a permanent legislative solution, would cause turmoil in their lives and contradicts our bedrock values as an immigrant nation.”
Many indicated that they had a hard time reconciling President Trump’s decision to phase out DACA — an acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — with his professed “love” for Dreamers, or those undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children and searching for permanent legal status.
“Despite many of the terrible immigration policies this Administration has put forward, I have always held out the hope that President Trump would keep his word and ‘take care’ of the Dreamers,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) said Tuesday. “After all, the President told America, ‘we love the Dreamers.’”
