AUSTIN — With thousands of college-age students facing an uncertain future, university leaders across Texas issued statements to reassure them…
Many attend Texas universities — the Migration Policy Institute estimates that 180,000 unauthorized immigrants in Texas are between ages 18 and 24, and 46,000 of them are in school. Texas has the second-highest number of DACA recipients in the country.
University Leadership Initiative, a UT-Austin organization for unauthorized migrant students, condemned Trump’s decision at a news conference Tuesday. About two dozen DACA students, parents and allies gathered in downtown Austin to testify about the program’s importance.
Samuel Cervantes has been a part of the program for five years. He organized the event because the group thought it necessary to call out the president for his cowardice, he said.
“The decision to end DACA was not prudent, ” Cervantes said. “We feel that this decision was not based on any economic or moral standing, because both Republicans and Democrats support the DACA program.”
Cervantes said the next step for the leadership group and allies of unauthorized immigrants is to organize and to “keep Congress members accountable for their words, ” he said, identifying supportive statements by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
“But we also want to create safe circles in our communities, ” Cervantes said. “We want to make sure Austin feels powerful and people who are under DACA don’t go back into the shadows.”
Under a “sensitive locations” policy memo from U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, immigration agents will not conduct enforcement operations at colleges and universities. ICE has reaffirmed that the sensitive locations memo is still in effect. That memo also covers day cares, schools, hospitals, places of worship, funerals and public demonstrations.
