The Biden administration has reversed guidance by the prior administration that barred Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other undocumented students from pandemic relief. While Congress last year authorized funds to assist students with expenses like childcare and housing, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, for no reason other than being anti-immigrant, blocked these students from relief. 

This week, her successor Miguel Cardona announced that the Department of Education would be reversing that cruel policy. “The pandemic didn’t discriminate on students,” Secretary Cardona said, according to The New York Times. “We know that the final rule will include all students, and we want to make sure that all students have an opportunity to have access to funds to help get them back on track.”

The previous administration’s policy should never have been in place. Like dozens of members in both the House and Senate noted in their letters calling on DeVos to reverse the policy, there was absolutely nothing in the CARES Act that explicitly blocked undocumented students from accessing emergency funds they desperately needed amid the pandemic.

“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,” senators wrote in their letter. “Furthermore, we have seen disturbing data on how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color. Blocking support for DACA recipients will only worsen this crisis and harm our families and communities.”

California’s community college system sued the previous administration over the policy in May 2020, ultimately winning the case. However, the decision opened up relief for undocumented students in that school system only, continuing to leave others shut out of relief. DeVos’ finalization of the policy the following month was met with further opposition:The Washington Post reports that of the more than 4,000 comments left by the public, fewer than 10% support her decision.

Undocumented youth organizations and advocates who have been pushing for the inclusion of undocumented students in this relief cheered the Biden administration’s decision this week to issue new guidance reversing the previous administration’s policy. More than 40 higher education groups in November had called on then-President-elect Biden to end the policy.

“Today we celebrate the decision by the Biden administration’s Department of Education to lift the callous rule by the prior administration to deny undocumented students from emergency COVID-19 relief for food, housing, childcare and more during a pandemic,” said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, senior advocacy manager for United We Dream. “This comes after the continued steadfast advocacy from immigrant youth and allies. Undocumented people have been largely left out of federal COVID-19 relief, so access to the $39.6 billion in federal aid for undocumented students is crucial.”

The Biden administration has also sought to ease the higher education barriers facing undocumented students, seeking to make Pell Grants accessible to DACA recipients for the first time in its initial budget request to Congress this past April. One 2017 survey of DACA recipients found that 45% of respondents were currently in school. “Among those currently in school, 72 percent are pursuing a bachelor’s degree or higher,” with majors including biochemistry, computer science, early childhood education, and neuroscience. 

“Every student struggling because of this pandemic deserves access to emergency aid that can make all the difference,” Senate Education Committee chair Patty Murray said, according to the Post. “After so many months of pushing back against the previous Administration, I’m so relieved that Secretary Cardona took this important step.”