Today, the Trump Administration announced the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, providing a six-month window to begin winding down the program for the nearly 800,000 affected recipients. The program was instituted by the Obama Administration in 2012.
Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) President and CEO J. Noah Brown offered the following statement in response.
“DACA is of great importance to thousands of community college students throughout this country, and we are dismayed regarding the decision to terminate this program. Community colleges are open-access institutions whose mission is to educate and empower students to achieve their academic and career goals. DACA is an important asset that facilitates this mission, providing stability and economic opportunity. Terminating DACA undercuts our efforts to serve this population by creating additional barriers to postsecondary access, including the ability for some students to receive in-state tuition. It would also prevent those students in whom we’ve invested from obtaining legal work in this country. These students were brought to the United States at young ages, and none of them willfully violated the law in order to immigrate to this country. To revoke educational and other life opportunities for reasons beyond their control is undeserved.
“We call on Congress to act quickly to remedy this situation for those individuals profoundly affected by this action.”
J. Noah Brown
ACCT President & CEO
About ACCT
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is a non-profit educational organization of governing boards, representing more than 6,500 elected and appointed trustees who govern over 1,200 community, technical, and junior colleges in the United States and beyond.