Earlier today, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) announced that the presidents of all twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities signed a Joint Statement on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This statement comes in response to the announcement earlier this month by the Trump Administration to face out the program. The Trump Administration’s actions puts more than 800,000 persons at risk of deportation. Deporting these students will place them in certain danger – especially as many of these students only know the United States as home.
Standing in support of undocumented students, the AJCU student body presidents note the importance of siding with truth and justice, a hallmark of Jesuit education:
“In the face of injustice, we are challenged to practice a high level of discernment and allow our knowledge and experiences to inform our actions of being with and for others. It is important to emphasize that our unifying mission underlines the commitment to all people, regardless of national origin and documentation status. Any action and policy that seeks to divide and tear us apart should never be accepted and thereby calls for our total resistance to such.”
Instead, the college study body presidents call for their fellow students to recognize the privilege of their Jesuit education and use that privilege through actions accompany and act for and with undocumented students.
A full text of the Joint Statement can be found on the AJCU website.
What do each of our schools need to do to more effectively aid all students who are undocumented? What resources can we share with each other?
The cover photo is featured courtesy of Harriet van Veen of the Flickr Creative Commons. The photo below with the signatures of the student body presidents is featured courtesy of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
