Provost Quick addresses DACA in email
Provost Michael Quick discussed USC’s support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the University’s undocumented immigrant students in an email statement sent to students, faculty and staff on Wednesday.
Regardless of the new presidential administration, he wrote, all students will be provided with a safe learning environment.
“We are all members of the Trojan Family, [and] we will remain committed to each other and to our shared values of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Quick wrote.
Quick reiterated that USC will comply with all laws. Students will not be searched without a warrant, the Department of Public Safety will not take action against students based on their immigration status and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act will continue to keep student records private if student consent or a judicial order are not provided.
Two committees have been formed to assist with USC’s response to further changes in immigration policy: the Provost’s Advisory Task Force on Immigration Issues and the Deans’ Steering Committee on Immigration.
In addition, the USC Center for Immigrant Integration will organize town hall meetings to share viewpoints on immigration and immigrant integration. The USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic will also provide campus training on DACA-specific issues. Such opportunities touching upon the impact of the recent presidential election will continue next semester.
“Ultimately, our values define us as a university community, and we will remain steadfast in our belief that everyone should have access to higher education and that we have a critical role to play as a preeminent private university focused on the public good,” Quick wrote.
I do hope that the University, as well as Provost Quick, understand that USC does not set immigration law or policy. Nor does the Provost’s Task Force, the Dean’s Steering Committee, or Gould’s Immigration Clinic. Congress determines immigration law. Presidents have some discretion in terms of policy and enforcement. President-Elect Trump has been clear that he intends to enforce immigration law more fairly than President Obama, whose approach fostered two classes of immigrants in our country: Those who came here illegally and for whom the law has been broadly waived and ignored …and those who came here legally for whom the law has been applied clearly and in full. By establishing this double standard, the Obama administration also created uncertainty by placing hundreds if not thousands of students (particularly in California) in a precarious position because, of course, his temporary reprieve was just that – temporary! Trump has signaled that he will return to a policy that enforces immigration law clearly, fairly and equitably upon everyone.
USC’s position as articulated by Quick is troublesome at best as it affirms these two separate classes of immigrants on campus. I am a first generation immigrant, and alumnus of USC. I was required to complete additional paperwork and provide documentation of my immigration status at every stage of my time as a student. I’m not sure why things would be any different today, unless perhaps Hispanic immigrants are simply not required to follow the same law and policy as white or European immigrants. I’d rather believe that the University would apply existing immigration law equitably across its entire student body, in accordance with existing law set by Congress.
Finally, let’s be very clear: The United States has some of the most generous and welcoming immigration policy of any nation in the world. There is nothing onerous about our immigration laws. Our nation welcome thousands and thousands of legal immigrants successfully every year. And for some perspective, the overwhelming majority of new immigrants each year are Hispanic or Latino, many of whom are of modest means, so the idea that Hispanics and Latinos complain and protest the most is ironic and shameful.