U.S. Dept. of Education investigating 2 Michigan universities for alleged exclusionary scholarships under DACA
The U.S. Department of Education says it's investigating five American universities, including two in Michigan, for what it called possible violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, saying their DACA-affiliated scholarship programs may be discriminatory.
The investigation, announced Wednesday, is targeting the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University, along with the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha and the University of Miami.
The federal education department says its intention is to "determine whether these universities are granting scholarships only for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals."
DACA, often referred to as the Dream Act, has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as minors to live and work in the U.S., without fear of deportation.
The education department drew attention to the University of Michigan's Dreamer scholarship and Western Michigan University's WMU Undocumented/DACA Scholarship.
Neither the Trump Administration's America first policies nor the Civil Right (sic) Act of 1964's prohibition on national origin discrimination permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States," Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said.
In announcing their investigation, the education department said they will also "examine additional scholarships that appear to exclude students based on other aspects of Title VI, including race and color."
Kay Jarvis, director of public affairs at the University of Michigan, responded to Wednesday's announcement, saying, "The university has received a letter of notification relating to this matter. We have no further comment." CBS Detroit has reached out to Western Michigan University for comment and is awaiting a response.
Last week, the same department announced it was launching a separate investigation into the University of Michigan following the arrests of Chinese nationals in a number of pathogen smuggling cases.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified the University of Wisconsin as being among the universities being targeted in the investigation. The story has since been corrected.
