Message from Dean Faigman: Defending DACA

Dear UC Law SF Community:

It seems that an increasingly large part of my job involves responding to the intolerance emanating from Washington, D.C. The latest indignity against human decency occurred yesterday with President Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With one bigoted swipe of his pen, he thereby denied an estimated 800,000 young people – our students and our friends and their families – the right to work and study legally in the United States without fear of deportation.

I write today to assure you that we stand united, committed to maintaining a culture of tolerance and inclusion. As a public institution of higher education, our mission is enhanced – enabled! – by the diversity of our student body. As a nation of immigrants, all Americans should be devoted to policies that treat all immigrants, regardless of status, with dignity, respect, and basic fairness. This is especially so for those of us – students, staff, and faculty – who have devoted their careers to the ideals of justice, the guarantee of equal opportunity and, in those plain words from the dreamers who founded this nation, the pursuit of happiness. The DACA program represents these cherished values, ones that have long been a hallmark of our republic.

I am working closely with General Counsel Elise Traynum and senior staff to develop guidance for students and their families regarding the ramifications of the president’s action. We abide by the University of California Statement of Principles in Support of Undocumented Members of the UC Community. We will work with other University of California campuses, as well as local, state and federal authorities to respond to this cruel and unjust action.

We will be organizing an information session soon and will send out a general announcement about its time and location in the next day or so. In the meantime, any students wishing to obtain immediate information and assistance should contact Associate Academic Dean Jeff Lefstin (lefstinj@uchstings.edu) or Professor Richard Boswell (boswellr@uclawsf.edu). They can identify additional resources that are available to help you.

Let me close by assuring the entire UC Law SF community that we will do all within our power as an institution to ensure the safety and support of all of our students, irrespective of immigration status. We stand by you.

As every student of constitutional law knows well, no change in unjust laws ever came about without resistance. This injustice must be resisted.

Sincerely,
David Faigman
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David L. Faigman
Chancellor and Dean
John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California Hastings College of the Law
200 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-565-4739
faigmand@uclawsf.edu
Professor, UCSF School of Medicine (Psychiatry)
david.faigman@ucsf.edu