DACA program part of panel discussion at UAFS

A panel discussion at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS) is expected to explore the role of students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and will include connections to workforce development and access to education.

The event will be held 6 to 8 p.m., Oct. 7, in the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center’s Reynolds Room on the UAFS campus.

The event, titled “From the Classroom to the Capitol: Students’ Role in the DACA Movement,” is free and open to the public. Panelists will include state leaders, university faculty, and nonprofit advocates to discuss how students have contributed to the recent passage of seven DACA-related laws in Arkansas.

The DACA program was first announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, began accepting DACA applications in August 2012. The program has faced legal scrutiny and in September 2023, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in the Southern District of Texas ruled against some DACA provisions. The Biden Administration has appealed Judge Hanen’s ruling, and that appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

According to the American Immigration Council, DACA has enabled roughly 832,881 eligible young adults to work lawfully and attend school. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 1.3 million U.S. residents were eligible for DACA as originally implemented. The Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates that the average DACA recipient arrived in the United States in 1999 at the age of 7, and that more than one-third of DACA recipients (37%) arrived before the age of 5.

Co-hosted by Arkansas United, the UAFS Office of International Relations, and the Hispanic Heritage Planning Committee, the event aims to highlight student activism in the expansion of educational access and workforce opportunities for DACA recipients.

Panelists will include Mike Rogers, Arkansas chief workforce officer; Retired Col. Nate Todd, member of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees; Dr. Bill Schwab Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, author of “Dreams Derailed; and Dr. Megan Godfrey, former Arkansas state representative.

“As an immigrant-led, immigrant-serving nonprofit that has been working with Fort Smith families for 14 years, we have been able to witness firsthand the tremendous leadership that exists in Fort Smith and the authentic desire to build bridges with and help River Valley Hispanic families,” Mireya Reith, founding executive director of Arkansas United, said in a statement. “It was important for us that the community of Fort Smith have the opportunity to acknowledge their local leadership and to hear from our current state leaders about ways to maximize the benefit of the DACA laws we all passed together.”

Reith said the discussion is part of the broader theme of Hispanic Heritage Month and an effort to help Hispanic students fulfill their educational and workforce potential.

“I’ve been so impressed by the students I’ve met at UAFS and other schools around Arkansas. From this panel, my hope is that we can learn more about how those students’ energy and activism helped expand educational access and workforce participation in our state,” said Noah Schmidt, UAFS international student programs and services administrator.