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Promise and Peril for Undocumented Students

Dreamers Interactive

For the thousands of college students who were brought to the United States illegally as children by their parents, President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, provided temporary shelter.

The program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 such immigrants to work and study here for two-year renewable terms since 2012, protected those young people from deportation. But because the program only deferred action and was the result of a presidential memo, not congressional legislation, it was vulnerable to being rescinded by another president.

Here are Chronicle articles that provide background, context, and depth on the history of the program and its participants.

Supporters of DACA rallied on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as the justices heard oral arguments in three cases challenging the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to rescind the program.
News
U.S. Supreme Court Weighs DACA’s Fate as Immigrants Rally Outside
By Danielle McLean, Katherine Mangan
At oral arguments in a landmark case, the justices appear to be leaning toward letting the Dreamers’ protection expire.
Colleges have largely supported activists’ calls to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects against the deportation of people who were illegally brought to the country as children. But there’s only so much colleges can do on behalf of their undocumented students.
News
Colleges Can’t Completely Shield Undocumented Students if DACA Lapses. Here’s What They Can Do.
By Bianca Quilantan
Anxiety and frustration hang above undocumented students and the faculty and staff members who are trying to support them.
Activists gathered in New York City in August to protest the Trump administration's expected action to curtail Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants some legal protections to immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children.
News
Trump Will End DACA in 6 Months, Confirming Dreamers’ Fears and Putting Onus on Congress
By Katherine Mangan
A program that has given some 800,000 undocumented immigrants a chance to attend college, work, and build lives in the United States will be phased out after a delay to give Congress a chance to come up with a legislative fix.
Protesters sit on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on Tuesday in response to the Trump administration's announcement that it would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Colleges overwhelmingly condemned the action and vowed to help students affected by it.
Administration
What Major Universities Had to Say About Trump’s Move to Roll Back DACA
By Liam Adams, Sam Hoisington
Colleges were virtually unanimous in their condemnation of the administration’s action. Some also outlined under what circumstances they would share students’ information with authorities.
A rally this month in support of the threatened Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program defended it on an economic basis.
Students
As a Challenge to DACA Looms, Participants Brace for a Battle
By Katherine Mangan
Rumors are swirling that President Trump may end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, as some state attorneys general threaten to sue over it.
News
Why It’s So Hard for Undocumented Students to ‘Fix’ Their Status
By Katherine Mangan
Some people question why such students don’t obtain permanent legal residency. The answer? It’s extremely difficult.
A pro-immigrant activist demonstrates last year in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s move to keep an Obama-era program deferring action on children brought illegally to the United States, many of them students, still left many questions.
News
Trump Will Continue DACA for Now, Though Immigrant Students Still Wonder About Its Future
By Katherine Mangan
The administration’s move to keep one Obama-era program while formally ending another left questions about whether those actions could disrupt families of undocumented immigrants.
"I knew that I was undocumented," says Martín López, 21, who works as a roofer in north Georgia. "I didn't really see college as an option." Then he met a young woman who told him about some professors who were teaching college-level courses to aspiring students like him.
Students
In a Secret Classroom in Georgia, Immigrants Learn to Hope
By Libby Sander
Freedom University offers them a path to college in a state where they are banned from several top universities.