Estela Mara Bensimon is a professor of higher education at the USC Rossier School of Education and Director of the Center for Urban Education, which she founded in 1999. With a singular focus on increasing racial equity in higher education outcomes for students of color, she developed the Equity Scorecard—a process for using inquiry to drive changes in institutional practice and culture. Since its founding, CUE has worked with thousands of college professionals— from presidents to faculty to academic counselors, helping them take steps in their daily work to reverse the impact of the historical and structural disadvantages that prevent many students of color from excelling in higher education. The innovative Equity Scorecard process takes a strengths-based approach starting from the premise that faculty and administrators are committed to doing “the good.” CUE builds upon this premise by developing tools and processes that empower these professionals as “researchers” into their own practices, with the ultimate goal of not just marginal changes in policy or practice, but shifts on those campuses towards cultures of inclusion and broad ownership over racial equity.

Professor Bensimon’s critical action research agenda has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Teagle Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and The James Irvine Foundation.

ILACHE Statement on the Repeal of DACA

Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that DACA has six months while Congress works on immigration legislation and some form of the Dream Act.

With a stroke of a pen, he put at risk the dreams and aspirations of thousands of young people who were brought to this country as children and who are seeking a college education and other opportunities to improve their current situation as well as that of their families and communities. These students want basic human fundamental rights and access to higher education, which should be afforded to all regardless of immigration status. Undocumented students now find themselves victims of a political game and respectability politics leaves so many people out of proposed policy solutions.

Let us be clear. The removal of DACA harms these students and puts their families at risk for deportation and detention. It is not what this country says it stands for. We are a nation of immigrants. The country was built by immigrants and continues to be made strong by their contributions. This despicable act is not only bad for DACA students and their families; it is bad for the country. Economists predict that Trump’s action will cost the United States approximately $200 billion in the next decade, which is over 1% of the 2016 GDP. The decrease in tax revenue would result in a $60 billion loss to the yearly national budget (Cato Institute). The action taken today by Trump to end DACA hurts us all.

What we need in this country is bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform. We need leaders with experience, vision and courage to work on a fair and just immigration system. Senators Durbin and Graham have proposed the 2017 DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill as a temporary solution. Legislators need to work with this administration to pass this legislation. Grandstanding and carrying out political vendettas will not serve our country in the short or long term. ILACHE will continue to support and work with legislators who defend the rights of undocumented students and their families.

ILACHE will be organizing a resistance campaign to urge our legislators and Trump to do the right thing. We will keep our members informed of our actions and solicit your help. We will continue to send out updates and post information on our website on what you can do to assist in this battle for justice.

In these troubling times we, the Latinx community, must stand together and mobilize efforts to resist the decisions of this administration that harm our community. We must be relentless in this effort. We also must work in coalition with others on decisions that affect the well-being of our country. There will be many battlefronts where our participation will be needed. In this charge, we must not falter or lose hope. ILACHE calls on Washington and Trump to restore DACA and begin the work of immigration reform to guarantee protection for the immigrant community.

In Solidarity,
ILACHE Board Members