QCC Stands with Other Higher Education Institutions as DACA Heads to the Supreme Court

WORCESTER, MA— October 9, 2019— On October 4, Quinsigamond Community College President Dr. Luis G. Pedraja joined over 164 colleges and universities from across the country in signing an amicus brief supporting the roughly 700,000 young immigrants who came to the United States as children and who hold Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. These individuals, known as “Dreamers” have received temporary protection against deportation, and have been allowed to work and attend school legally. This “friend of the court” brief was coordinated by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration to help ensure that these children are able to continue with their lives without fear of repercussions or deportation.

“Our country was founded on the principle that all are endowed with three basic rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The sole crime of the undocumented is the pursuit of these basic human rights. Most of these students came as children, some as infants, brought by parents hoping for a better future and the need to survive,” said Dr. Pedraja. “We stand with our sister institutions in support of the Dreamers and their ability to receive a higher education.”

QCC stands for a diverse and inclusive community, ensuring that everyone has access to quality, affordable, higher education. The Dreamers are the doctors, nurses, business owners, police officers, early childhood educators, scientists and others who strengthen a society and help it prosper. They help businesses flourish, and provide key services that many rely on for their day-to-day lives. They bolster economic development and contribute to state, local and federal taxes.  They are the embodiment of QCC's Wyvern mascot, whose spirit serves to guard and protect our community.

Since 2012, DACA has offered temporary protection from deportation and the ability to work legally to more than 700,000 young immigrants who came to the United States as children. The program has benefited these Dreamers, including our students, their families, their communities, and our economy tremendously.

On September 5, 2017, the administration announced that they were terminating the DACA program. To date, multiple courts have kept renewals ongoing for current DACA recipients, but Dreamers have still been forced to live court case to court case, uncertain about their futures and in fear of being separated from their families and the lives they have built over decades in the United States.

The future of DACA, and the futures of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers will be argued at the U.S. Supreme Court on November 12, 2019. The Court could hand down a ruling as soon as February 2020 determining if Dreamers will lose the ability to live, study, and work in the United States.

Visit Amicus Brief to learn more.

For more information about QCC, contact Josh Martin, Director of Institutional Communications at 508.854.7513 or jmartin [at] qcc.mass.edu