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President Miller Joins Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration
Alliance aims to increase public understanding of how immigration policies impact students
News Release | December 19, 2017
Virginia Wesleyan University President Scott D. Miller has joined the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a collective effort of over 160 American college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact students, campuses and communities.
The Alliance will support adoption of best practices on campuses, and work in a unified manner to communicate the need for federal and state policies that create a welcoming environment for immigrant, undocumented, and international students. In the spirit of its Founding Statement, the Alliance’s most urgent priority is to urge Congress to find a permanent legislative solution for the 800,000 Dreamers who will lose the protections afforded to them by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“It is our goal to help ensure that Dreamers on our campuses go home for the holidays with hope and the peace of mind that they will be able to return next semester, rather than living with the fear of being separated from their families and loved ones,” said Dr. Miller. “We urge our leaders in Congress to pass responsible, humane legislation that will preserve access to our institutions of higher education and ensure that those who are registered for DACA or defined as ‘undocumented’ may continue to make contributions to America that are already, indeed, documented and valued.”
The Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration was launched by a distinguished group of American higher education leaders of public and private universities and university systems, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges representing hundreds of thousands of students, faculty, and staff from institutions across the United States. It is led by a Steering Committee that includes presidents and chancellors Nancy Cantor, Rutgers University-Newark, NJ; Noelle Cockett, President, Utah State University, UT; John J. DeGioia, Georgetown University, DC; Dorothy Leland, University of California - Merced, CA; David Oxtoby, President Emeritus, Pomona College, CA; Eduardo Padrón, Miami Dade College, FL; and Timothy White, The California State University, CA.
Additional information about the Alliance can be found at www.presidentsimmigrationalliance.org.