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Letter to students from Chancellor McRaven

Dear students,

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court declined the Department of Homeland Security’s request to fast-track its appeal of a federal court injunction against the Trump Administration’s plans to rescind DACA. Before the injunction was put into place, DACA was scheduled to end on March 5, 2018. The Supreme Court’s decision means the DACA policy will continue until the lawsuit ends, Congress acts, or the President alters his earlier decision.

I was pleased to see the Supreme Court decide that the DACA program will remain in place for now. If you are a DACA recipient, your time on one of our 14 campuses should be marked by your hard work, determination and enlightenment - not by anxiety about your future.

I, along with UT institution presidents, strongly believe in the benefits of DACA and encourage Congress to act quickly to continue the program and create a pathway for you to fulfill what I trust is your dream, to become a citizen of our great nation.

If you are a DACA recipient, we also encourage you to immediately renew your status, as the legal and legislative deliberations about the program are probably not over. If you need further information or resources about the DACA program and opportunities to renew your status, please consider visiting some of the websites established by our campuses, including at UT Austin, UTSA and UTEP.

Finally, if you are a DACA recipient, know this: as Congress and the courts continue to consider this issue, the UT System will always follow the law, but rest assured that our campuses will remain places where you can safely live and study.

Chancellor McRaven

About The University of Texas System
Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking basic, applied and clinical research, and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States. With 14 institutions and a projected enrollment of more than 234,000 students, the UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates approximately two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public institutions in Texas. The UT System’s operating budget for FY 2018 is $18.3 billion, funded in part by $3.6 billion in sponsored programs from federal, state, local and private sources. With more than 20,000 faculty – including Nobel laureates and members of the National Academies – and nearly 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, student advisors and support staff, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.

News Contact Information

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