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UC Lawsuit Is Latest Effort by Educators to Support America’s Dreamers

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Education leaders across America, who have a first-hand appreciation for how and why Dreamers should be able to continue their contributions, have been among the most vocal in criticizing President Trump’s decision to end DACA.

New lawsuit from the University of California system challenges the end of DACA: Today, lawyers for former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the school system she leads, which includes 238,000 students, filed a lawsuit “in federal court accusing Trump officials of violating administrative procedures and constitutional due process requirements by abruptly ending [DACA,]” according to the New York Times. In an interview, former Secretary Napolitano explained, “I’m really outraged on behalf of our students, who have done everything that has been asked of them…Most of them know only the United States as home. To say that they have to be thinking about possible deportation is wrong on the law, inconsistent with our value and bad immigration policy.”

Bipartisan group of five former U.S. Secretaries of Education praise DACA and call for permanent legal status for Dreamers: A letter to congressional leaders signed by former Secretaries of Education Richard Riley (Clinton), Roderick Paige (Bush), Margaret Spellings (Bush), Arne Duncan (Obama), and John King (Obama) criticizes the end of DACA and calls for a legislative path forward for Dreamers. Among the key excerpts, the letter states, “Taking away DACA without a legislative path forward isn’t just bad for the country. It would violate a promise our nation made to these earnest young people. A nation of laws must honor its pledges, and that means finding a fair way forward for Dreamers…The stakes are too high for them and for our country. We call on you, the leaders in Congress, to put politics aside and do what’s right. The Dreamers are our children and our future. We believe in them as sincerely as they believe in America.”

 “Cruel, unjustified and ultimately self-defeating” – colleges and universities blast the decision to end DACA: Across America, colleges and universities have been busy in recent weeks highlighting how DACAmented students benefit and enrich their student bodies and condemning President Trump’s decision to end DACA. See this roundup from the Chronicle of Higher Education highlighting an array of reactions to the end of DACA from colleges and college leaders – including the statement from University of Connecticut President Susan Herbst calling the decision, “cruel, unjustified and ultimately self-defeating.”

National Education Association (NEA) President Eskelsen García’s keynote address features focus on DACA and Dreamer college student Axel Herrera Ramos as featured guest: At a National Press Club event this afternoon, NEA president Lily Eskelsen García will deliver a keynote address that will include criticism of Trump’s decision to rescind DACA. Axel Herrera Ramos, a Dreamer and a DACA activist studying at Duke University in North Carolina, will be a special guest at the keynote address.