UofL President Greg Postel and Provost Dale Billingsley released a statement Tuesday in response to the Trump administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The Student Government Association and the Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association also released statements. The SGA statement is available here in its entirety.
The H/LFSA statement is below:
Dear University of Louisville Community,
The recent decision by the White House to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has placed several members of our Cardinal community at risk. The Trump administration indicated DACA will end this coming March if Congress does not act. This change in policy leaves nearly 800,000 undocumented residents with an uncertain future, including some of our own University of Louisville students. These students immigrated to the United States from many countries across the globe, not just Latin America.
Potentially, these students would have to return to a country that has not been their home. In many cases, these are places where violence and starvation forced their parents to move to the uncertain with a dream of a better life for their kids. Those kids have grown now and are hardworking, productive individuals who tried to do the “right thing” by declaring their status when they registered under the DACA program. In short, they are the very type of people our society wants and needs. These individuals have enrolled in universities across the nation, have entered the traditional labor force, and have even joined the armed forces.
In addition to the great humanitarian cost associated with such a change in policy, there are large fiscal costs as well. The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that $1.2 billion of tax revenue will be lost with the end of the program. A study from the CATO institute finds that immediate deportation of these individuals will cost the federal government $60 billion. An additional $280 billion in economic growth will be lost over the following decade.
The University of Louisville has been receptive to undocumented students in the past, and we hope it will continue to be. These students cannot apply for financial aid like most students. However, the Kentucky Council of Postsecondary Education does allow for selected colleges and universities to extend in-state tuition to these students. A University of Louisville alumnus has set up the The Sagar Patagundi Alumni Scholarship to subsidize tuition for high-achieving undocumented students. One way to show your support is to donate to this scholarship.
Several informational sessions will take place on campus and throughout the greater Louisville area over the next few days. In the meantime, the University of Louisville Counseling Center (http://louisville.edu/counseling/) is available to students in crisis. The Cultural Center is making itself available to students who need to “drop in” for more information about how to proceed, members of the Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association of the University of Louisville are also available to support
We request that the university community help support these fellow Cardinals in their time of need and that university officials monitor the situation as well as provide timely support and protection to these members of our community.
Sincerely,
Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association of the University of Louisville
