Boston University President Robert Brown was one of more than 340 university presidents who signed an open letter last week in favor of the national “deferred action for childhood arrivals” program.
The DACA program protects certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ website.
The letter urged other sectors beyond education to join them in supporting DACA and undocumented immigrant students.
“This is both a moral imperative and a national necessity,” the letter stated. “America needs talent – and these students, who have been raised and educated in the United States, are already part of our national community.”
President Barack Obama enacted DACA as an executive order in 2012, and the program has protected more than 740,000 people since then, according to information provided by BU spokesperson Colin Riley.
“To our country’s leaders we say that DACA should be upheld, continued, and expanded,” the open letter stated. “We are prepared to meet with you to present our case.”
Riley said Brown’s stance lines up with with the university’s.
“He does speak for the university as [the] president,” Riley said.
Riley said the letter is a reaction to the current political climate.
“Right now it’s an open question what happens post-inauguration,” Riley said. “The whole purpose of writing the letter [is] in support of that executive order [and] the protections for those individuals remain in place.”
