Dear Presidents' Alliance Member,
|
Tomorrow, May 22, the House Judiciary Committee will begin markup on the Dream and Promise Act, H.R. 6. Markup involves the committee considering and adopting or rejecting amendments and reporting the legislation to the House floor for a vote. The House floor vote will likely occur in the next few weeks. This is a key time for this legislation and we encourage campuses and students to voice support for an expedient House floor vote after the bill is marked up out of committee.
Accordingly, in this update, we share information regarding the latest developments on the Dream and Promise Act, H.R. 6, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and Dreamers generally. Below see updates, links to resources, and details on actions to consider during this period of time.
Thank you for your continued support.
Miriam Feldblum, Executive Director, and Jose Magaña-Salgado, Director of Policy and Communications
Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration
|
Dream and Promise Act Markup
|
The House Judiciary Committee will begin markup at 10 am est tomorrow. You can see the official notice for the markup
here
and, Wednesday morning, view the livestream
here
. For those of you in the Washington, D.C. area, you can even attend the markup in person at 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 beginning at 10am est. Finally, you can follow the Alliance’s Twitter handle at
@PresImmAlliance
as we will live tweet throughout the markup. In support of the markup, the Alliance submitted a
new statement for the record
, outlining its priorities and recommendations for the bill.
For procedural reasons, the committee split the H.R. 6 into two bills (and made minor changes to each), the
Dream Act of 2019
and the
American Promise act of 2019
, that it will markup separately and then combine on the House Floor through the
House Committee on Rules
. The committee will also markup a
bill
to designate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but that bill will not be combined with the Dream and Promise Act. If amendments are filed before the markup, the Committee will upload them and share them at this
link
.
|
Dream and Promise Act: Actions to Consider
|
Feel free to use the below resources, including the Alliance’s toolkit, to tweet and speak in support of the Dream and Promise Act during Wednesday’s markup. Advocates and educators will be using the hashtags #DreamAndPromiseNow and #ProtectTheDream to tweet about the bill. You can also use the Alliance’s
sample tweets
for students, campuses, and presidents.
|
Dream and Promise Act: Higher Education Access
|
You may have noticed that the the standalone
Dream Act portion
of the Dream and Promise Act is now missing two provisions related to higher education access, the repeal of Section 505 (which restricts the ability of states to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants) and explicit language authorizing conditional permanent resident (CPR) access to federal financial aid—both Alliance priorities. It is our understanding and hope that the House Committee on Rules will re-insert the repeal of Section 505 on the House floor, with the provision being temporarily removed due to procedural reasons.
The federal financial aid access language will likely not return and we support this change. As CPRs are treated as lawful permanent residents for all purposes except naturalization, they will, without explicit, authorizing language,
already
have access to federal financial assistance, including Pell Grants, loans, work study, and services. There was also concern that the previous version of the higher education language could be viewed as a restriction on Pell grants. Consequently, the Alliance supports the bill’s current language in regards to federal financial assistance and will continue to monitor these provisions. Our position on these two issues is expanded upon in a
letter
the Alliance Steering Committee transmitted to the committee and House leadership last week.
|
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals: DACA Rescission was Unlawful
|
DACA recipients and campuses received good news last week, with the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
issuing a decision
determining that the administration's rescission of DACA was unlawful. This decision represents the second time a federal court of appeals has ruled on behalf of Dreamers in regards to the termination of DACA and represents a helpful development in maintaining the preliminary injunction directing the continued existence of DACA.
Read the entire decision
here
.
|
|
|
|
Additional Resources and Articles
|
|
|
|
Commentary.
We share
an insightful commentary
by two Rhodes Scholars, including one who is a Dreamer, about the example of the Rhodes Scholarship (now open to Dreamers). They call on all organizations and foundations to follow suit and expand eligibility to their scholarships to Dreamers.
Relevant Research.
Immigrants Rising, in collaboration with the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the Dreamers Advisory Group, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, just released the California Community Colleges Dreamers Project report. The report outlines ways institutions can support undocumented student success, and includes a variety of recommendations that public and private institutions across the nation (not just California) can adopt to support their immigrant students. The recommendations are paired with current promising practices at the individual, group, and institutional levels. You can download the executive summary
here
, and the full report
here
.
State Resource Maps.
Finally, we share two state maps that highlight institutional policies and resources for undocumented students. For our California partners, the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition developed
Campus Resources for Undocumented Students
. This is an interactive map to help individuals find information about campus centers that provide support for Dreamers, including contact information and addresses.
In Michigan the National Forum and its ULead Network created an
Undocu-Accessible Public Campuses
map that analyzes the extent to which public institutions in that state are accessible (in-state tuition, financial assistance) and provide support for undocumented students. Both resource maps can provide useful ideas and checklists for your campus. Michigan is building a state-wide coalition to bring together higher education institutions, community groups, state offices, and students to support undocumented students. Is your campus involved in a state-wide coalition? Does the coalition include public and private institutions? Let us know at
info@presidentsimmigrationalliance.org
.
|
|
|
|
|
|