Dive Brief:
- Roll Call reports United State Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) are drafting legislation that would extend legal status to more than 700,000 undocumented students.
- The legislation is intended to disrupt announced plans from President-elect Donald Trump to revoke an executive order on undocumented immigrants, which the White House may be seeking to delay.
- When paired with recent scholarship support programming for undocumented college students, the legislation could extend college attendance in key geographic areas and campuses.
Dive Insight:
For many presidents and campus executives across the country, the top issue they say is keeping them up at night right now is the concerns of their undocumented students following the election. While some states are pledging to penalize campuses for providing safe space to undocumented students, and faculty are railing against federal and state-supported discrimination against the same groups, institutions find themselves in a difficult position of supporting campus attitudes and policy efforts.
There is no prescribed method of dealing with these dueling perspectives without drawing criticism or controversy from one of the groups. Schools can only detail the financial, cultural and logistical implications behind potential enrollment growth with undocumented students, and how these may clash with current or future legislation.