U.S. policy change may lead to school records requests from undocumented immigrants
Published: August 14, 2012
School officials may soon face increased requests for records from current and former students seeking to qualify for the deferred deportation policy recently announced by the Obama administration.
The federal government will begin accepting applications later this month for “deferred action” status, under which immigration officials will not pursue deportation of young persons who came to the country as children and are no threat to public safety or national security.
“The impact to schools appears to be limited to an expected increase in requests for student records to supplement individual applications. Schools need to be prepared for this,” said Dennis Meyers, CSBA assistant executive director for Governmental Relations. “On the positive side, this could lead to improved campus environments as students will not have to live in fear of immigration officials.”
Among other requirements, eligible current or former students would need to have come to the U.S. before age 16, to have continuously resided in the U.S. for at least five years, and to be enrolled or graduated; high school equivalency diplomas are acceptable.
The forms to apply for deferred action status and employment authorization should be available on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget website by Aug. 15. After that, schools may receive requests for student records as evidence of eligibility.
More information is available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Web page on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; the American Immigration Council has compiled a demographic profile of immigrants who might qualify for the policy.