Cornell President Martha E. Pollack and 56 other presidents and chancellors of Association of American Universities member schools sent a letter Sept. 7 urging Congress to act immediately so that DACA participants may remain in the United States without fear of deportation.

This follows Pollack’s Sept. 5 statement on DACA and her Aug. 31 letter to President Donald Trump, in which she urged Trump to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which affects some Cornell students.

The Association of American Universities letter to Speaker Paul Ryan and Leaders Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer follows the president’s decision to end DACA in six months if Congress does not take action to restore it. The letter concludes: “Providing a permanent legal solution for these individuals is both a moral imperative and a national necessity if our nation is to live up to the ideals we espouse. As a country, we should not break the promise made to DACA participants, and we should not tarnish the bright American promise of opportunity.”

The Global Cornell website offers updates and resources for undocumented and DACA students.

This article was originally published in the Cornell Chronicle on September 8, 2017.