Amid the torrent of pleas to President Trump this week to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are letters written by several university presidents. In a noteworthy showing of direct engagement in political discourse, the presidents of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Amherst, NYU, and Duke, for example, have written personal letters this week.

The Obama-era program protects undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation and allows them to legally work in the country.

During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to rescind the program, which was instituted by executive action by former President Barack Obama.

The president is reportedly prepared to announce a decision on DACA on Tuesday. The timing of the decision owes itself in part to outside pressure; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and 10 other Republican state officials, called onthe administration to rescind the DACA program by September 5 or face a lawsuit.

The letters written by university presidents emphasize the good character of undocumented students and their contributions as members of the education system and future members of the workforce. In his letter, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber writes, “I expect that the extraordinary young people at Princeton and other institutions of higher education who have benefited from the DACA program will be leaders in building the innovation economy that your administration has championed.”

Read the source article at The Atlantic