Penn, along with 18 other universities, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court this past Friday in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Penn Today reported.
The Trump administration's attempt to repeal DACA is currently facing legal challenges in the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California case. The brief claims that talent and potential would be lost not only to the DACA recipients themselves, but to these universities and the nation as a whole should the act be rescinded.
The brief included written testimonies in support of DACA from various university officials in the nineteen schools involved in the amicus brief. It also noted various examples of DACA students’ accomplishments, including 2016 Engineering graduate Alfredo Muniz, an undocumented student from Texas who studied robotics and mechanical engineering.
In his time at Penn, Muniz co-founded XEED, a sensor-based system that collects and transmits data about limb movement in Parkinson’s disease patients. Muniz won the President's Innovation Prize for XEED in 2016, which contains a $100,000 stipend for winners to further develop their projects.
According to the brief, XEED now "has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of patients around the world,” and might have never been developed had it not been for DACA.
In recent years, members of the Penn community have shown signs of support for DACA. In 2017, over 100 faculty members signed a petition urging President Amy Gutmann to encourage the protection of DACA students.
In a statement in the Penn Almanac, Gutmann called upon Congress “to act promptly to pass bipartisan legislation to permanently protect the Dreamers,” noting the threat that this would impose upon Penn’s mission of “providing a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students.”
On Nov. 12, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for the DACA cases, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate