A Letter from ASI President Riley Nilsen Regarding DACA

By: Riley Nilsen on Sep 05, 2017 in ASI Student Government

Dear Mustangs,

To “Ride high” means more than cheering at football games or singing along with the band at graduation. To ride high means to unify and stand aside our fellow Mustangs, our Cal Poly peers, our classmates, and our friends. To ride high is to rise above the occasion and to support one another in our pursuit of a higher education and making the world a better place. As of this morning, DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, was rescinded leaving some of our students at Cal Poly facing fear and uncertainty for what lies ahead.

DACA provided protection from deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and allowed them to work and live unhindered by the threat of an uncertain future. This morning, it was announced that the DACA program will no longer offer that protection which will destabilize the lives of many young, talented, and intelligent students, many of whom are a part of our Mustang family. Regardles­­s of what you believe, I hope that you will stand with our students; students who are faced with this intensified fear of losing the life that they have built at Cal Poly and the opportunities they had to create a better future for themselves, their families, and our campus. I can’t begin to imagine the feeling that these students are experiencing. I challenge our students who are comforted by their own citizenship, to empathize with our students who have little or no control of their documentation status and have been brave enough to pursue a life that contributes back to our country.

We need to uplift our fellow Mustangs who counted on DACA for their opportunity at an affordable, higher education. I hope that now, more than ever, we can ride high with our undocumented students who are faced with uncertainty and support our students in their time of need.

If you are an undocumented student seeking support, please email undocu@calpoly.edu or visit the Cal Poly DREAM Center (52-E11). Visit the Cal Poly Undocumented Student Working Group website for more information.

Additionally, if you would like to actively support our undocumented peers, you can call your representative and congressmen to proactively revise DACA. Visit Call My Congress for contact information.

Sincerely,

Riley Nilsen

ASI President

I am a campus ally for undocumented Cal Poly students

Ally for our undocumented students

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