Statements from President Crow

Dear ASU Community:

Whatever decision the President makes regarding DACA, these are the basic principles that we have and will continue to follow. 

We are committed to the success of all of our students and in particular our students from high schools in Arizona.

DACA students at ASU are young adults who have graduated from an Arizona high school who meet our admission requirements. We are mandated to educate all Arizona students at a cost as close to free as possible. We do this.  

When the Arizona Constitution was ratified, there was no mandate to draw distinctions between students or to do anything other than please educate “all the children of the state.” At the time much of the state was made up of immigrants (of all classifications) and bi-nationals, Mexican Americans reflecting their new national home after the war between the US and Mexico. In fact, a close read of history, and the Arizona constitution, shows Arizona’s founders clearly intended that we just get everybody educated.  

This is in fact what we intend to do. We are going to educate students from Arizona and in doing so we will follow the law, however that is expressed. We will at the same time, within the law, do everything we possibly can do to help young people move their lives forward – regardless of the circumstances that brought them to this country.  

In any event, all of this is rather easy at the end of the day. Care for children, show them love and respect, prepare them for the future and help them start their lives. If we can do that, then we will have done our part for tomorrow to be a better day.  

We will have more to say after the President announces his decision.