The End of DACA?

With the Trump administration’s announcement of plans to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), a key focus is on college students who fear deportation. But ending DACA, which offers protections to roughly 800,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, has significant repercussions for K-12 school communities as well.

As Education Week’s Corey Mitchell explains, tens of thousands of DACA recipients either attend, work in, or have children attending the nation’s public schools. At the same time, Trump’s announcement — which has been widely criticized by education advocates on both the right and left — has many colleges and universities scrambling to help immigrant students who could be affected, said Katie Mangan of The Chronicle of Higher Education. She explains the legal challenge that prompted Trump’s action to dismantle DACA, and how the move could impact college students who rely on the permits to work and support themselves while still in school.