Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday that 500 community college students in Los Angeles will receive a grant to pay the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) application fee thanks to a partnership between the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, the Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges and the Los Angeles Community College District.
The district’s nine colleges have about 10,000 undocumented students, according to Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez, who said, “The district’s support to cover the cost of the DACA application fee provides another assurance to our LACCD students that `You are safe here.'”
One of the goals of the program is to incentivize students to apply for DACA status as soon as possible. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen, in Houston, ruled the program unlawful earlier this month. The judge ruled that the Department of Homeland Security is temporarily prohibited from approving new applications, but it may continue to accept them.
