Contact:
Kellee Edmonds
(202) 478-4662
edmondsk@aascu.org

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2022 – The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and its nearly 400 members remain carefully mindful of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that keeps in place the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while remanding the case to the U.S. District Court for further consideration. This action will allow current participants to continue to make important contributions in our communities while the full legal landscape of the issue is reconsidered.

The court’s decision acknowledges the pending start date of the Biden administration’s new DACA regulations and its potential impact on the trial court’s initial ruling that found the Obama administration’s 2012 DACA memorandum to be unlawful.

AASCU is extremely concerned with the ambiguous legal environment these individuals and their families must still confront. The time to settle this issue permanently is long overdue.

“For a decade now, the DACA program has continued to endure all cruel efforts to challenge its purpose and heartless attempts to dismantle it,” said Dr. Mildred García, president of AASCU. “We continue to thank President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for their efforts to strengthen the legal underpinnings of the DACA program through the development of the new DACA regulations,” she continued.

AASCU recognizes the countless contributions that both DACA program participants and Dreamers continue to provide our society through their employment, enrollment in colleges and universities, and  the payment of taxes that help the economic development of our communities and regions.

Our public regional comprehensive colleges and universities continue to emphatically call on Congress to finally approve the DREAM Act after more than 20 years since its initial introduction. AASCU institutions also advocate for the extension of federal student financial aid to all DACA recipients and Dreamers to bolster their higher education attainment and success.

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The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is a Washington, D.C.-based higher education association of nearly 400 public colleges, universities, and systems whose members share a learning- and teaching-centered culture, a historic commitment to underserved student populations, and a dedication to research and creativity that advances their regions’ economic progress and cultural development. These are institutions Delivering America’s Promise. Visit us at www.staging.aascu.org.