Some leaders of the SUNY Oswego community are urging congress to pass legislation in response to President Trump’s decision to end the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

 SUNY Oswego president, Deborah F. Stanley, Faculty Assembly Chair, Lisa Glidden and Student Association President, Dalton Bisson composed a call to action to send to the NYS Congressional Delegation on Thursday.  

According to US Citizenship and Immigration services, the DACA program was announced by the Secretary of Homeland Security on June 15, 2012. It stated that “certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years”. Under DACA they could could also renew this deferred action and it also made them eligible for work authorization.

Ending the DACA program would impact “nearly 80,000 individuals in our nation [who] now face devastating alteration to their lives and aspirations and do not deserve the fate unfairly placed upon them” Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson wrote in the call to action. The call to action was emailed to SUNY Oswego staff and students Thursday morning.

The email illustrated how much Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson value members of the DACA program, called “Dreamers”, at SUNY Oswego and across the country. “We, as Americans, must be willing to shoulder the responsibility to assure that our nation’s laws reflect highly moral and deeply ethical positions. To refuse to do so in this instance would seriously debase our heritage as a nation of immigrants and hope” Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson wrote.

For more information on the DACA program and to read the full announcement please visit  https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca#previousdacaupdates