Amid a growing uncertainty about the fate of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students and others without legal status, universities across the country are not only championing the plight of these individuals — they’re stepping in with a relief plan for those with “at risk” status.
The University of Minnesota’s Immigration Response Team is the latest to join the vociferous chorus on behalf of not just DACA students but also of other undocumented pupils, along with students whose Temporary Protected Status has ended.
The new scholarship program, called The Dream Fund, will provide financial assistance for housing, groceries, books, and medical or dental care, or other extenuating circumstances, notes the group’s website.
Interestingly enough, the opening statement from the university’s Immigration Response Team reads, “We are proud to announce the creation of The Dream Fund, a new fund to help immigrant students so unexpected emergencies do not derail their academic dreams.”
In other words — the lines between students who are legal immigrants and those who are not are blurred. Queries to the Immigration Response Team at the University of Minnesota on this matter and others were not returned by the time of publication.
“The University of Minnesota, like a lot of other publicly funded universities, seems to place a higher priority on the academic dreams of people who are in the country illegally than they do on the academic dreams of citizens and legal immigrants,” Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told LifeZette.
Mehlman also said, “For all intents and purposes, public funding for higher education is a zero-sum game. Money that is allocated to fund illegal aliens is money that is unavailable to other students who need it. Moreover, these policies create a magnet for illegal immigration. When states like Minnesota offer hefty college subsidies, it is an incentive for more people to break the law.”
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The University of Minnesota’s Dream Fund is modeled after similar programs at the University of Utah, Western Michigan University, and University of Nebraska, a Campus Reform article noted.
“The pressure is being created by a well-funded and well-organized advocacy network on behalf of illegal aliens,” said Mehlman. “It is also a consequence of the fact that we can precisely identify an illegal alien who is benefiting from these programs, but not the individual American student who is being harmed.”
“Logically, when an illegal alien is admitted to the University of Minnesota and given huge subsidies, there is another student somewhere in Minnesota who isn’t going to get in.”
“Logically, when an illegal alien is admitted to the University of Minnesota and given huge subsidies, there is another student somewhere in Minnesota who isn’t going to get in and may not have the option of a very expensive private college,” Mehlman noted.
“That other unidentified student is a real person, with real dreams, and real aspirations too. And his or her parents did not violate any laws.”
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What is often forgotten amid the cacophony of immigration reform is that DACA beneficiaries are in the United States illegally, albeit through no fault of their own — and that, as President Donald Trump made clear in his State of the Union address, Americans are dreamers, too.
Elizabeth Economou, a former CNBC staff writer and adjunct professor, is based in Seattle. Follow her on Twitter.
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