Letter to Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the Department of Education - Warren Joins Bennet, Menendez, Colleagues to Call on DeVos to Reverse Course and Allow DACA Students to Access Emergency Financial Aid Secured in CARES Act

Letter

Dear Secretary DeVos:

We write to express our serious concerns regarding the U.S. Department of Education's
("Department") decision to prohibit institutions of higher education (IHE) from granting
emergency assistance provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
(CARES) Act to undocumented students, including tens of thousands of students who are
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. This decision unnecessarily harms
students in need, and contradicts clear Congressional intent and the plain language of the
CARES Act. We expect you to comply with the intent of the CARES Act and reverse this
unauthorized decision immediately.

DACA recipients came to this country as children and make extraordinary contributions to our
communities and our economy. During this Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,
DACA recipients attending institutions of higher education across the country face challenges
like other students, many with the added burden of supporting their parents and siblings or being
the first in their families to attend college. These students should not be excluded from critical
emergency financial aid. Indeed, those who are especially vulnerable to economic hardship are
exactly whom these funds were designed to help.

The CARES Act allocated $14 billion to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, with
more than $6 billion of these funds required to go directly to students through emergency
financial aid. The statutory text of the CARES Act allows DACA recipients to receive
emergency financial aid and establishes broad flexibility to each institution of higher education
to meet the unique needs of their students. While the bill uses existing mechanisms to physically
distribute funding, the Department, itself, has stated that "the Secretary does not consider these
individual emergency financial aid grants to constitute Federal financial aid under Title IV of the
HEA"1
for which undocumented students would be ineligible. What's more, the CARES Act
lays out the authorized uses for the funding, which fall outside of the scope of any existing
federal student aid program. Because the CARES Act is not title IV funding, it cannot carry the
restrictions of title IV funding, and does not prohibit DACA recipients from receiving support.
In fact, your April 9th letter to institutions of higher education announcing the availability of
CARES Act funding for students states that:

"Each institution may develop its own system and process for determining how to
allocate these funds, which may include distributing the funds to all students or only to
students who demonstrate significant need. The only statutory requirement is that the
funds be used to cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to
coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student's cost of attendance, such as
food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care)."2

This letter accurately describing the CARES Act directly contradicts the guidance the
Department subsequently produced, which established unauthorized requirements and
restrictions on students and institutions of higher education.
Additionally, when asked about the changing guidance, a spokesperson for your Department
stated that the exclusion of DACA recipients "…is consistently echoed throughout the law."3

While some sections of the CARES Act contain explicit requirements that result in
undocumented individuals being deemed ineligible for various aspects of non-education related
relief, neither the Education Stabilization Fund nor the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
contain such prohibitions, making it clear that eligibility for these funds should be at the
discretion of each institution. The Department cannot project a specific prohibition from one
section of the law to an unrelated and independent section of the law where Congress made no
such prohibition.

Lastly, it is in the public interest to provide students with emergency financial aid and other
educational supports. Ensuring that all students have secure housing, food, and health care during
a time of economic turmoil is a key part of keeping families safe and indoors and to ending the
COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we have seen disturbing data on how COVID-19 has
disproportionately affected communities of color.
4 Blocking support for DACA recipients will
only worsen this crisis and harm our families and communities.

As students and families across the country struggle to deal with the public health and economic
consequences of the COVID-19 emergency, we must work together to help all students in need,
regardless of immigration status. We, again, urge you to immediately reverse your decision to
exclude DACA recipients from CARES Act emergency financial aid grants to students.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,