First DACA Recipient to Win Rhodes Scholarship Worries He Won’t Be Allowed Back in U.S.
REALLY DUMB
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
The first DACA recipient to ever win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship—which promises two years of fully funded study at England’s Oxford University—risks not being allowed to return to the United States once his scholarship has ended, the Associated Press reports Friday. “If I leave, there’s a very real possibility that I won’t be able to come back. That’s the biggest fear for sure,” said Harvard graduate Jin Park, whose parents migrated from South Korea when he was 7. “I haven’t really thought about what that’s going to mean if I’m not allowed back.”
Under the Obama administration, DACA recipients were able to travel overseas for academic purposes—but President Trump revoked that privilege in 2017 when he tried to shutter the program. Park and fellow advocates argue that since the Supreme Court stopped Trump from ending DACA entirely, the Obama-era provision should be upheld. Confusion over his status isn’t going to stop Park—who in high school started a nonprofit to help immigrant students navigate the college application process—from taking the scholarship, he told the Associated Press. “I’m looking forward to having that unstructured time to think about these broader questions of who belongs in America and the value judgments we make about others,” he said.