The Daily Signal reports Brown University plans to offer “tuition-free” master’s degree programs to beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals if the federal government ends the Obama administration protections.
DACA, an executive action implemented by then-President Barack Obama, authorized renewable two-year deferrals of deportation along with eligibility for work permits for illegal immigrants brought to this country as children.
President Donald Trump sought to phase out the program and asked Congress to decide by law what to do about the roughly 800,000 DACA recipients and others like them.
“Should DACA be eliminated, we will create in-school and postgraduate opportunities for students unable to work legally to engage in stipend-supported research and education that is not citizenship-dependent,” Richard Locke, Brown University’s provost, said in a statement published on @Brown.
In the same post, Locke announced that the private Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, will offer tuition-free, fifth-year master’s programs for eligible 2018 graduates.
“Admitted students would receive a stipend and health insurance,” he said.
Brown also offers to cover the $495 DACA renewal fee, “if renewal is an option,” as well as legal services for DACA recipients.
Along with creating on-campus resources for DACA recipients, Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, wrote a letter to Trump urging the administration and Congress to preserve DACA.
According to the letter, staff said ending DACA would violate Brown University’s core values of service to the campus community and of providing opportunity in a fair, courteous, responsive, and efficient way.
Brown is not the only school to implement such programs. Willamette University in Oregon and the University of California at Berkeley both offer resource pages for DACA recipients.
It looks like Plan B may be needed, this is a series of recent tweets from POTUS regarding DACA recipients.
Yet another reminder @realDonaldTrump ran on an anti-immigrant agenda and has worked to create a machine of human misery for immigrant communities since taking office. pic.twitter.com/jh45vTKU6t
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 1, 2018
