Prof. Jonathan L. Walton's statement on the Trump administration's recent announcement ending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood) Program.
"The book of Exodus begins with a new Pharaoh who knew not of Joseph. It seems today that our President is unaware or willfully ignorant of the positive contributions of nearly a million “Dreamers” among us.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals provides a compassionate and constructive way for young migrants to participate fully in the only society they have known. These young people help spur our nation’s economy, and they enrich our cultural and intellectual life. As Harvard Univeristy President Drew Gilpin Faust stated in her letter to President Trump, we should not force these young people back into the shadows of our society. They contribute far more to the United States when they are allowed to put their skills to work openly without fear of deportation.
Moreover, as the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, my faith compels me to embrace these young people with the love and grace of God. At the Memorial Church we worship a God who embraces the stranger, as well as questions how it is that we choose to render some people strange in the first place. For we were all once strangers, too." Jonathan L. Walton, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church