On September 5, 2017, U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions announced an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an administrative action by the Obama administrative to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation. In the five years of the program, nearly 800,000 young people had benefited from its work authorization and related access, like driver’s licenses, through corresponding state legislation. The termination of the program has reopened debates about the place of these young people in American society, and it has sparked efforts on the part of lawmakers, educators, institutional agents, and immigrant communities to advocate on the part of these young people and their families and to address a growing set of needs. In the wake of the announcement, and as the Trump administration winds down the program (set to end on March 5), many questions have surfaced. Is there a quick congressional fix for this particular population? What is the future of U.S. immigration policy? And how do (and will) communities respond?

The DACA Seminar at Harvard is an effort we are engaged in—in service to opening up a space of learning and dialogue to our campus and the larger community—around questions related to the termination of DACA and TPS, deportations, the current state of immigration policy and practice and its implications for young people, parents, families, communities, scholars, artists, workers, policy makers and practitioners. We see this wind-down period of DACA as a window through which to discuss not only DACA but also a host of immigration-related issues that impact a wide range of the American public.

Through a series of events on campus, set to run between late January and early March, 2018, it is our hope to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders in an effort to gain a better understanding of the issues at hand, while engaging various viewpoints.

Please check back frequently for more details on our schedule of events, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for live updates and conversation.

All DACA Seminar events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. No registration is required.

Presented by Harvard Graduate School of Education, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard Inequality in America Initiative, Harvard College Act On A Dream, and the Committee for Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights