End Of DACA: Minneapolis Students, Teachers 'Fearful'

MINNEAPOLIS, MN– Minneapolis students, teachers, and families are fearful after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday morning that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era policy protecting about 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors, will be rescinded.

Responding to the decision, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Ed Graff said district officials are "gravely concerned" and "stand with the leaders of many large urban school districts around the nation in speaking out" against the White House announcement.

"I know that many MPS employees, students and families are experiencing fear, uncertainty, anger and disappointment."

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Starting on Wednesday, the administration will not accept any new applications for DACA. Registration in the program lasts for two years. Anyone whose registration expires in the next six months will have until Oct. 5 to apply for another two-year extension. But after DACA recipients' registrations expire outside the six-month window, they will not be able to reapply. This means, in part, that the hundreds of thousands of people who received work permits under the program will be forced to leave their jobs once their registrations expire.

"Minneapolis Public Schools, like many school districts, organizations and businesses in Minnesota and nationwide, is made better by the immigrants who work and learn in our schools," Graff added. "We are gravely concerned and that the DACA program will be ended — whether now or in six months. We join with those leaders in asking Congress to act quickly to pass legislation to protect the DACA provisions and remove the uncertainty facing so many of our students and families."

Graff urged MPS students and employees affected by the announcement to "know your rights," and directed them to the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Helpline, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, and the Directory of Immigration Legal Services in Minnesota from the Immigration Advocates Network.

Read more: Jeff Sessions: DACA Is Being Rescinded

Photo credit: AP Photo/John Locher