Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision protecting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a big victory for the nearly 700,000 young people currently protected by it from the threat of deportation. Nearly as important, it was also a victory for our communities, our schools and, ultimately, our country.
DACA, established in 2012, protects undocumented young people brought to the United States as children by their parents, once they’re applied for Dreamer status and proved that they’ve committed no serious crimes, lived here for at least five years and met several other criteria, including that they are in school, have earned a high-school diploma or G.E.D. or were honorably discharged from the military.
In other words, DACA protects hard-working, law-abiding, ambitious young people. They’ve grown up here, in the only country they’ve known, and become valued parts of communities across the country. Many of them are now attending college, including the two New York schools where we serve as presidents. We need them in our campus communities, and our country needs them. We’re proud to have DACA students in our classrooms.
Our schools do not require DACA students to report their status, so we only know those who have chosen to self-identify.
At Fordham, DACA students’ classmates may not know who they are, but they valued deeply the students’ presence on campus, and bitterly opposed what they saw as their unjust treatment by the administration. When DACA was rescinded, Fordham students responded immediately with postcard and phone campaigns to leadership in Congress in support of the DREAM Act. As a Jesuit institution, Fordham believes in educating men and women for others. Therefore, care for DACA students is central to the university’s mission.
At Pace, the ranks of DACA students have included Lisdy Contreras-Giron, who graduated a year ago. She’s a remarkable young woman, who worked hard as a student while also working several jobs to pay for her education. (Dreamers are not eligible for federal financial aid programs.) She interned one summer for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and another for the Manhattan D.A.’s office. Today she’s a paralegal, preparing to enroll in law school to pursue her dream of becoming a criminal defense attorney.
These are the kinds of students our campuses need more of.
As educators, we know that the key to our nation’s future is an ever-increasing supply of smart, talented, motivated workers. We strive for diversity in our classrooms and residence halls, because we know success in an increasingly integrated world is dependent on introducing a wide variety of experiences and perspectives, and knowing how to work together across cultures and backgrounds. This is how our workers will bring new ideas and innovations to our economy, and how our companies will stay competitive in our globalized world.
DACA students improve our classrooms, and this decision sends a strong signal reaffirming what we’ve always known: That all students, including the Dreamers, deserve a place in our communities and on our campuses.
Father McShane is the president of Fordham University. Krislov is the president of Pace University.
