US universities call on Trump not to deport migrants

  • 26/11/2016
(CBS)
(CBS)

Nineteen-year-old Daniella Hinojosa Sada is double major in computer science and Japanese, on a full scholarship at Pomona College.

She's a typical all-American student, except Daniella is an undocumented immigrant who was brought to the US from Mexico when she was just one.

She's now attending university legally, part of a programme to accommodate children who arrived in the US as illegal immigrants.

But President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to cancel these types of programmes, which could put more than 1 million students like Daniella at risk of deportation.

"I suppose I would go live with my grandmother, but that is an important question. People say we will send you back home, but where is home? St Louis, Missouri - I grew up there."

Earlier this week, Pomona College President David Oxtoby wrote an open letter to the incoming administration, saying the programme helping immigrant students "is both a moral imperative and a national necessity".

It's now been signed by the presidents of more than 250 colleges and universities across the country.

"It's been a very successful programme, let's keep it going," says Mr Oxtoby.

"I hope Donald Trump can wait a little bit to see how these people can contribute as lawyers, as doctors, to save lives, before he decides to take away these benefits," says Daniella.

Daniella's full-ride scholarship is worth about US$300,000. An education she says would be wasted if she's deported to Mexico.

CBS