Senate Democrats demanded Monday that the Trump administration grant illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in college the same access to federal coronavirus assistance that citizens are entitled to.
The senators said Dreamers, who are here in tentative legal status under the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty, have made “extraordinary contributions” to the U.S. during the coronavirus outbreak and deserve the benefits.
“DACA recipients attending institutions of higher education across the country face challenges like other students, many with the added burden of supporting their parents and siblings or being the first in their families to attend college,” wrote more than two dozen senators in a letter to the Education Department. “These students should not be excluded from critical emergency financial aid. Indeed, those who are especially vulnerable to economic hardship are exactly whom these funds were designed to help.”
They asked Secretary Betsy DeVos to rule that DACA recipients are entitled to some of the billions of dollars earmarked for college students from the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that cleared Congress a month ago.
Ms. DeVos has said schools can decide how to allocate the money, either by giving some to every student or by targeting it to those in the most need — but she said most international students are excluded.
DACA recipients, despite having lived in the U.S. for years, are not legal immigrants.
The Education Department says it’s following sections of the Higher Education Act that generally bar non-citizens from federal financial aid. Indeed, under the law DACA students cannot apply for federal financial aid, though some states have sought to offer their own benefits.
The Senate Democrats argue the $2.2 trillion stimulus money falls outside of the restrictions in the Higher Education Act.
And they point out that while some sections of the stimulus did specifically bar illegal immigrants from aid, that’s not the case for the college money.
“The Department cannot project a specific prohibition from one section of the law to an unrelated and independent section of the law where Congress made no such prohibition,” wrote the senators, led by Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
