UC-AFT Statement Opposing DACA Cancellation

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Today’s announcement that President Trump has rescinded DACA is an act of cruelty that breaks our nation’s core promises and undermines our society’s basic values.

As contingent faculty and librarians at the University of California, we work every day with DACAmented students and colleagues. These Dreamers, who were brought to the US by their families as children, are courageous, hard-working, ambitious young people. We have seen first-hand how DACA has transformed their lives, families, and communities. Each and every UC campus is better because of immigrant youth who study and work here.

President Trump’s attack on 800,000 people will have widespread destructive consequences and is part of his larger campaign to govern by fear and uncertainty. We reject his policies and politics and will fight with and for our students and co-workers to unite once again and assert what should be obvious: all Dreamers, including a quarter million Californians, deserve a fair chance to live their lives and pursue their goals without constant threat of deportation.

We demand that Congress pass permanent deportation relief for people who arrive in the US as children and ask everyone who values public higher education to call their Senators and Representatives and demand the same.