Faust Condemns DACA Elimination

President Faust urges Congress to protect undocumented students through legislative means. 

President Drew Faust

In a message to the University community today, President Drew Faust condemned the announced elimination of Deferral for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Obama-era executive-branch program that shielded from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. The program affects about 800,000 immigrants, including at least a few dozen Harvard students. “Today’s announcement of the elimination, in six months, of [DACA] represents a course of action that challenges some of the most foundational values of our nation and American higher education,” Faust wrote. “This cruel policy recognizes neither justice nor mercy. In the months to come, we will make every effort to have our voice heard, in the halls of Congress and elsewhere, about the need for the protections of DACA to continue.”

College dean Rakesh Khurana followed her message with an email to undergraduates this afternoon: “I wish to make abundantly clear that Harvard College stands for equality, diversity, and opportunity for everyone,” he wrote. “As a child growing up in New York City, I regularly visited the Statue of Liberty with my family. As a first-generation immigrant born to parents who were once refugees, I believed that America’s exceptionalism was in the generosity of its people.”

Faust had written to President Donald Trump last week urging his administration to maintain the program, and today urged congressional leaders to protect the affected group through legislative means. She advised affected students to seek guidance from the Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program at Harvard Law School, which recently hired an attorney to support undocumented members of the Harvard community. The University maintains a website of information for undocumented students.  

The University “will maintain its existing financial aid policies, which provide funding to students without reference to immigration status, and the Harvard University Police Department—which is not involved in the enforcement of federal immigration laws—will maintain its practice of not inquiring about the immigration status of students, staff, or faculty,” Faust added. Read her complete statement here. 

You might also like

‘Passengers’ at A.R.T. Blends Acrobatics with Einstein’s Relativity

Review: Quantum mechanics meets circus arts at the American Repertory Theater’s performance

Harvard Research Funding Cuts Are Illegal, Judge Rules

The Trump administration violated the University’s First Amendment rights and must restore all funding, the court said.

In Sermon, Garber Urges Harvard Community to ‘Defend and Protect’ Institutions

Harvard’s president uses traditional Memorial Church address to encourage divergent views.

Most popular

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Jodie Foster Honored at Radcliffe Day 2025

The actress and director discussed her film career and her transformative time at Yale.

Explore More From Current Issue

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio smiling beside the pink cover of her novel "Catalina" featuring a jeweled star and eye.

Being Undocumented in America

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s writing aims to challenge assumptions. 

Book cover of "Black Moses" by Caleb Gayle with subtitle about ambition and the fight for a Black state.

Civil Rights in the American West

A new book chronicles one man’s quest for a Black state.

Whimsical illustration of students rushing through ornate campus gate from bus marked “Welcome New Students.”

Highlights from Harvard’s Past

The Medical School goes coed, University poet wins Nobel Prize.