One Final Opportunity to Advocate for Dreamers

January 29, 2018

Members of the Rutgers Community:

As I think you already know, time is running out on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program, which has provided protections for an estimated 800,000 undocumented people who were brought to this country as young children, is slated to end in March unless Congress takes action to make permanent those protections.

Rutgers has been a national leader in advocating for preservation of the DACA protections. Over the course of the past year, our community has generated more than 33,000 letters to members of Congress urging the House of Representatives and the Senate to adopt bipartisan legislation to solve the DACA dilemma. Other universities have joined in our efforts to seek a truly bipartisan solution.

Our advocacy, I believe, has made a difference in keeping this issue before Congress. The House and the Senate will be considering DACA over the coming weeks, and Democrats and Republicans are putting aside their differences and seem genuinely poised to take action.

We can make sure that happens…but only if we act quickly. If you share my concern about making permanent these protections, I’d like to ask you to join me one more time, for one last push to save DACA.

Taking action to show your support is easy—it will take no more than a minute or two of your time. Simply follow this link to the Rutgers Advocacy webpage. Once there, you will be asked to provide your name and address; the advocacy program will generate a letter of support that will be emailed to your US Senators and Representative, as well as to President Trump. The program automatically identifies your appropriate elected representatives from your home address. The letter is pre-written, so you may review it before you hit “send.”

Let me emphasize that participation in this effort is entirely optional. While I am deeply troubled by the possibility that the DACA program could end and I personally support extending  current DACA protections, I understand that some members of the Rutgers community may not share my point of view, and, if you have an opposing view, you can use this link to contact your federal representatives. I would never presume to tell you what to do with respect to legislative advocacy. We are offering this option to you because many people in our community have participated in activities to advocate for undocumented students. This call to action provides a way, if you so choose, to express support for legislation that would achieve the public policy for which so many at Rutgers have been advocating.

Sincerely,

Robert Barchi