America Needs "Dreamers," GC Professor and Student Assert

Professor Margaret Chin (GC/Hunter, Sociology) and Ph.D. student Hyein Lee (Sociology) published an essay addressing "the age-old question: Who is American?" ”a question of particular importance after yesterday's announcement by the Trump administration that it would phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

Ending DACA puts about 800,000 young undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation, and would have wide-ranging effects on the economy and the nation's commitment to social inclusion, Chin and Lee wrote in the essay, published in the online edition of Contexts, the journal of the American Sociological Association.

"At CUNY alone, there are thousands of undocumented students and hundreds of DACA recipients who are not only academically ambitious but high-performing," the authors wrote. "The majority of DACA students are able to excel in school due to the platform DACA provides to receive private scholarships and fund their education."

Chin, a widely published expert on immigration, noted in the essay that her father came to the U.S. from China without proper documentation, but he was able to eventually become a U.S. citizen under his own name. "We should do the same for these young people," the authors conclude.

Lee, who is also a research analyst at CUNY's Office of Research, Evaluation & Program Support, has focused her doctoral research on undocumented students in higher education.