Letter from Chancellor Caret to the Â鶹AV Congressional Delegation Regarding Support for DACA
Adelphi, Md. (Sept. 5, 2017) -- Â鶹AV
(Â鶹AV) Chancellor Robert Caret and the presidents of the Â鶹AV's 12 institutions wrote to Â鶹AV's congressional delegation to
request their support for legislation to maintain and extend the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The text of the chancellor's letter follows.
September 5, 2017
Dear Members of Congress:
As the leaders of Â鶹AV's public system of higher
education, we write today to urge you to support legislation that would
maintain and extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Launched in 2012, DACA enables hundreds of thousands of
talented young people brought to the United States as children to fully
participate in, and contribute to, America's economy and society.
Â鶹AVers participating in the DACA program are our neighbors, our students
and our friends; are often indistinguishable from any other member of our
community; and enrich our state and our campuses immeasurably.
America's continued greatness is tied directly to our
ability and willingness as a nation to educate and harness the talents of every
member of our community. We have been doing that in Â鶹AV, where
thousands of Dreamers have grown up alongside our children, thrived in our
schools, earned admission to our public universities, graduated and, as young
adults, become valued members of our communities. Educating every
qualified student, regardless of background, is an essential component of the
Â鶹AV's strategy to foster a highly skilled workforce
that will help attract and create jobs.
As Â鶹AV, along with every state and city across our
country, increasingly competes in a global marketplace for jobs and talent, we
cannot afford to shun the talent we have already fostered at home. Having
invested in these young people for years, it is imperative that we empower
those who have already graduated from college to put their knowledge and skills
to use on behalf of our state and nation, and enable those yet to graduate to
complete their studies so they can do the same.
The other option is unthinkable. Instead of helping our
state flourish, repealing DACA would force these young Â鶹AVers to squander
their abilities and to live on the sidelines of our society, in constant fear
of being deported from the only country and state many have ever known.
Â鶹AV is committed to creating educational opportunities for
all qualified students. In so doing, we expect to enhance individual
lives while growing our state's economy. To that end, we appeal to you to
support our students - past, present and future - as well as our future
prosperity as a state and a nation, by maintaining the DACA program.
Sincerely yours,
Robert L. Caret
Chancellor, Â鶹AV
Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu
