Student Government Association President J.D. Baker said on Facebook Feb. 10 that he sent letters to Oklahoma's U.S. senators and one Oklahoma U.S. representative urging them to support legislation that would help student immigrants remain in the United States for their educations.
In the letter, Baker asks them to support The BRIDGE Act, introduced Dec. 9 by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. The act is intended to further protect those helped by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by granting them work authorization for three years and "provisional protected presence," according to the National Immigration Law Center.
DACA, created in 2012, grants some undocumented immigrants, including people who entered the country before their sixteenth birthdays, temporary permission to remain in the United States, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
According to Baker's Facebook post, he sent the letters to Sen. James Lankford, Sen. James Inhofe and U.S. Congressman Tom Cole.
"As the student voice of the University of Oklahoma, I am compelled to ask for your support of this legislation. Our DACA students are bright, motivated students and leaders, several who I work with on a daily basis," Baker wrote in the letter.
"I believe in this legislation and the great opportunity it provides to our nation," Baker said in his Facebook post.
