Nearly three years after becoming the first Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient to win the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, Jin Park is finally heading to study at the University of Oxford in England. The Associated Press (AP) reports that federal immigration officials have granted Park’s application for advance parole, which allows DACA recipients to travel internationally in very limited circumstances.
This provision was killed by the previous administration following its rescission of the DACA program in late 2017. Under the Biden administration, young immigrants like Park and Santiago Tobar Potes, the first Latino DACA recipient to become a Rhodes scholar, again have the chance to travel internationally for educational purposes. “We are thrilled that two DACA Rhodes Scholars will be heading to Oxford next month to start their courses, finally knowing they can safely and legally return after their studies to the only homes they know,” American Secretary to the Rhodes Trust Elliot Gerson told AP.
While lower courts had initially forced the previous administration to partially reinstate the DACA program and accept renewal applications, officials with that administration killed a provision that gave DACA recipients permission to travel internationally under very limited circumstances, including educational opportunities. Park told AP in January 2019 that pursuing his dream could also mean not being able to return home to the U.S. “I leave, there’s a very real possibility that I won’t be able to come back,” he said in the report. “That’s the biggest fear for sure.” Park, originally from South Korea, has lived in the U.S. since he was just 7 years old.
While facing this life-altering decision, Park used his platform to advocate for all young undocumented immigrants, including accepting an invitation to be the State of the Union guest for New York Rep. Grace Meng.
“As a DACA recipient and a resident of her district in Queens, I look forward to attending the State of the Union to listen, learn, and discuss the importance of legislation to find a permanent solution for DACA recipients and all 11 million undocumented immigrants,” he said at the time. Meng said the position that Park and hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants were put in by the previous administration was “unconscionable,” and that it was “shameful that Jin may have to abandon this coveted opportunity for a Rhodes Scholarship, an opportunity that he worked tirelessly to achieve.”
The previous administration would later be forced by the courts to fully reinstate DACA, and in March the Biden administration said it would be publishing a new rule to further protect the program. Since then, 22-year-old competitive runner Luis Grijalva was able to compete in the Tokyo Olympics through advance parole, though due in part to his legal status, he ran for Guatemala, where he was born. "I've been here for 21 years, some ways I feel as American as anybody else who was born here but just that having that birthright, that being born here, just takes away so many opportunities for myself but also for everyone else who's on DACA," he told CNN in July.
Tobar Potes told NPR late last year that DACA’s precarious position initially made him hesitate when applying for the scholarship. If it hadn’t been for the court decisions that forced the reinstatement of DACA, “then I just wouldn't have applied,” he said in the report.
But since then, a Republican-led lawsuit has for now stopped all new DACA applications, continuing to make the point that young immigrants will remain under threat until Congress passes permanent relief for young people like Jin, Santiago, Luis, and Juan Escalante, who met with President Joe Biden last month and pressed Congressional Democrats to pass permanent relief through the budget reconciliation process. “It will be up to us to ensure every Democrat in the Senate holds the line, include a path to citizenship in reconciliation, and get this issue resolved for me, my family, and millions of undocumented immigrants across the country once and for all,” Escalate wrote at Daily Kos.
This provision was killed by the previous administration following its rescission of the DACA program in late 2017. Under the Biden administration, young immigrants like Park and Santiago Tobar Potes, the first Latino DACA recipient to become a Rhodes scholar, again have the chance to travel internationally for educational purposes. “We are thrilled that two DACA Rhodes Scholars will be heading to Oxford next month to start their courses, finally knowing they can safely and legally return after their studies to the only homes they know,” American Secretary to the Rhodes Trust Elliot Gerson told AP.
While lower courts had initially forced the previous administration to partially reinstate the DACA program and accept renewal applications, officials with that administration killed a provision that gave DACA recipients permission to travel internationally under very limited circumstances, including educational opportunities. Park told AP in January 2019 that pursuing his dream could also mean not being able to return home to the U.S. “I leave, there’s a very real possibility that I won’t be able to come back,” he said in the report. “That’s the biggest fear for sure.” Park, originally from South Korea, has lived in the U.S. since he was just 7 years old.
While facing this life-altering decision, Park used his platform to advocate for all young undocumented immigrants, including accepting an invitation to be the State of the Union guest for New York Rep. Grace Meng.
“As a DACA recipient and a resident of her district in Queens, I look forward to attending the State of the Union to listen, learn, and discuss the importance of legislation to find a permanent solution for DACA recipients and all 11 million undocumented immigrants,” he said at the time. Meng said the position that Park and hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants were put in by the previous administration was “unconscionable,” and that it was “shameful that Jin may have to abandon this coveted opportunity for a Rhodes Scholarship, an opportunity that he worked tirelessly to achieve.”
The previous administration would later be forced by the courts to fully reinstate DACA, and in March the Biden administration said it would be publishing a new rule to further protect the program. Since then, 22-year-old competitive runner Luis Grijalva was able to compete in the Tokyo Olympics through advance parole, though due in part to his legal status, he ran for Guatemala, where he was born. "I've been here for 21 years, some ways I feel as American as anybody else who was born here but just that having that birthright, that being born here, just takes away so many opportunities for myself but also for everyone else who's on DACA," he told CNN in July.
Tobar Potes told NPR late last year that DACA’s precarious position initially made him hesitate when applying for the scholarship. If it hadn’t been for the court decisions that forced the reinstatement of DACA, “then I just wouldn't have applied,” he said in the report.
But since then, a Republican-led lawsuit has for now stopped all new DACA applications, continuing to make the point that young immigrants will remain under threat until Congress passes permanent relief for young people like Jin, Santiago, Luis, and Juan Escalante, who met with President Joe Biden last month and pressed Congressional Democrats to pass permanent relief through the budget reconciliation process. “It will be up to us to ensure every Democrat in the Senate holds the line, include a path to citizenship in reconciliation, and get this issue resolved for me, my family, and millions of undocumented immigrants across the country once and for all,” Escalate wrote at Daily Kos.