APLU Statement on President Trump’s Immigration Proposal

Washington, DC – APLU President Peter McPherson today released the following statement regarding President Trump’s immigration proposal.

“APLU has long advocated a bipartisan fix to the nation’s broken immigration system. Immigration reform must begin with the foundational recognition that immigrants provide countless economic, cultural, and societal contributions that strengthen our country.

“For many years, APLU has championed increased employment opportunities for international graduates of U.S. universities. We need to end the economically self-defeating practice of training the best and brightest students from across the globe at our universities and sending them back to their home countries after graduation for no reason other than lack of employment-based visas and green cards.

“These students hold incredible promise and we appreciate the administration’s stated aim of better retaining them in the United States after they graduate. We need additional details to see whether the proposed policy would accomplish that priority.

“Yet we’re deeply disappointed the proposal doesn’t address Dreamers. Lawmakers urgently need to provide a lasting solution for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who were brought to the country as children and know no other home than the United States. Many Dreamers are vital members of the public university community. And it is in our country’s best interests to provide them the legal certainty they deserve.”