President Donald Trump terminated the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, Tuesday morning.
Implemented in June 2012, DACA protected undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and offered temporary work permits, social security cards, drivers licenses and protection from deportation through a two-year renewal program.
Arizona has nearly 28,000 DACA recipients, and roughly 790,000 people are using the program across the country. ASU had nearly 200 DACA recipients enrolled last semester, according to University officials.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement in the White House press briefing room Tuesday, calling DACA "an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws."
Sessions said the program had negative affects on the American people.
"The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences," Sessions said. "It also denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs."
President Michael Crow released a statement last week, pledging the university's commitment to DACA.
“If students lose the status that makes them eligible for in-state tuition, ASU will convene and engage the community on this issue to seek financial support for the continued study of students at ASU who graduated from Arizona high schools and who are qualified to attend the state universities — regardless of their immigration status,” Crow said in the statement.
Edder Diaz Martinez, Undocumented Students for Education Equity (USEE) outreach and retention director, said this action will tear apart families trying to support themselves legally and through the proper channels.
"DACA gave undocumented youth the ability to contribute to their families and communities. By receiving a work permit, they pay taxes and work legally," he said. "Dismantling the program will divide the country further while reinforcing the Trump administration's white supremacist agenda."
DACA ends ahead of the September 5th ultimatum presented by 10 state attorneys threatening to sue the executive branch if they did not rescind the program.
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