Statement by UMass President Marty Meehan regarding Supreme Court DACA decision

Today’s Supreme Court ruling that protects the nation’s 800,000 Dreamers from immediate deportation is an important and welcome step. I want to especially thank UMass Immigration Counsel Sandra Torres for her work on this issue in collaboration with the office of Attorney General Maura Healey.  

We must now continue to urge Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that makes permanent the rights of these young people to remain in the United States. A legislative solution is needed to alleviate the threat that Dreamers will be returned to the shadows, lose economic and educational opportunities, and continue to be threatened by deportation from a country they have called their own for nearly their entire lives. 

It is a hopeful and positive thing that, for the second time in a week, the Supreme Court has rendered a decision that provides people with important safeguards, given Monday’s decision protecting LGBTQ people against workplace discrimination.

Prior UMass Statements on DACA: