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USGD resolves to protect its DACA students on campus

Student government plans in conserving its DACA Sun Devils

USG Downtown Sen. Oscar Hernandez poses for a portrait on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016 in downtown Phoenix's Civic Space Park. 

USG Downtown Sen. Oscar Hernandez poses for a portrait on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016 in downtown Phoenix's Civic Space Park. 


Although many believe the U.S. will change under a Trump administration, members of Undergraduate Student Government Downtown believe students protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order will continue to belong at ASU. 

One of the biggest topics within the last presidential campaign season has been immigration. Part of that is because president-elect Donald Trump had promised to take action against President Obama's executive order in immigration, which includes DACA.

DACA was created in 2012,  and it is a policy that benefits undocumented millennials who entered the country as children.

As election season ended on Nov. 8, DACA recipients began to realize the country elected a president who may remove the one policy that allows them to enroll in higher education within the country.

According to a recent study, the state of the economy would decline if the president-elect were to do away with DACA.

After doing the math, results show it's not only DACA students who would take a hit in their pursuit of an undergraduate degree, but the country's economy would also statistically run into a wall as work permits and jobs are lost and growth decreases.

USGD Senator, Oscar Hernandez is a DACA recipient, who also was the senator that introduced Resolution IX.

The resolution is an effort to protect DACA students by offering online classes to them in the face of possible deportation.

He said the first step in making progress with this resolution is to talk to students at the Downtown Phoenix campus to analyze if they are on the same page with USGD on this issue.

He said the main goal in this resolution is to address the concern of many DACA students within the Downtown Phoenix campus,and ensure that this general election doesn't affect their education going forward.

"While this resolution hopes to make sure our DACA students keep their in-state tuition if they face deportation, we (as USGD) will make sure their degree progress will be completed through online classes," Oscar said.

Resolution IX is a result of this year's general election. It is a situation DACA students hadn't faced before this year.

Former USGD Vice President of Policy Ryan Boyd said that during his time in student government, student recipients of DACA were hardly discussed during his time as VP of Policy, but he did serve in USG when the Arizona Board of Regents were asked to take action with approving in-state tuition for DACA students.

"There was a lot of action and protests going on at the Arizona Board of Regents meetings to get this passed during my time in student government, which they finally did in May of 2015," Boyd said.

Most importantly, USGD wants to make sure that regardless of what path the country takes, the Downtown Phoenix campus will remain DACA students' home before and after they receive their college diploma.

Jimmy Arwood is current Vice President of Policy and helped introduced Resolution IX. After introducing this bill, Arwood said that taking away DACA Sun Devil students is taking away contributors to what makes ASU a great institution.

"They are part of our honors program, part of our research programs," he said, "It's important that we fight for these students because they are our students."


Reach the reporter at gmijares@asu.edu or follow @thewillmijares on Twitter.

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