Department of Homeland Security officials will adjudicate—on an individual, case-by-case basis—properly filed pending DACA renewal requests and associated applications for Employment Authorization Documents from current beneficiaries that have been accepted as of the date of this memorandum, and from current beneficiaries whose benefits will expire between the date of this memorandum and March 5, 2018 that have been accepted as of Oct. 5, 2017. For more information visit the DHS website.
A crowd of about 40 students and faculty gathered today at Ball State's landmark Beneficence statue to protest the Trump administration's decision to rescind DACA.
DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy put in place during the Obama administration that allowed children brought illegally to the United States by their parents to apply for deferred action. Immigrants who meet certain requirements are granted deferred action from deportation for two years.
Ball State student Mari Lynne Cruz, who is not a DACA recipient herself, organized the protest. Cruz has friends and family who are DACA recipients that are worried about their future in this country.
"It's very heartbreaking to basically see one person take away their future," Cruz said.
There are currently around 800,000 DACA recipients, almost 10,000 of those are in Indiana, according to the Center for American Progress.
When the change to DACA was announced, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the reversal was a response to the program's contribution to a surge of undocumented minors on the southern border, that it prevented millions of Americans from being employed and that the program was not in the nation's best interest, according to the Associated Press.
"It's very upsetting especially because also a lot of people fight for this country, they serve this country they've done a lot for this country," Cruz said. "For them to just be like 'now you have to go,' it's very upsetting."
Today's rally was organized to not only educate people on DACA, but also in response to what Cruz calls the universities "silence" on immigration issues.
"What frustrated us even more was that President Mearns' statement was very vanilla," Cruz said. "I know that there is not a lot of DACA recipients here on campus but you need to stand for those, even if it's just one or two."
President Mearns' gave on Wednesday. The full statement reads:
"Given President Trump's decision regarding DACA, it is now imperative that all members of Congress work promptly with the administration to enact legislation that will provide a permanent, just, and constructive solution for the young people who were brought to the United States by their parents."
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