Rhodes scholar worries U.S. won’t let him back

Would be first DACA recipient to go to Oxford

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — He became the first “Dreamer” to win the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, but for recent Harvard University graduate Jin Park, the joy of that achievement has given way to uncertainty.

The 22-year-old, who lives in New York City, risks not being allowed back in the country if he enrolls at the University of Oxford in England in the fall.

The Trump administration rescinded the option for overseas travel for those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, or DACA, when it moved to phase out the Obama-era program in 2017.

But travel abroad, which was allowed under limited circumstances such as academic study during the Obama administration, should still be permitted because the federal courts have upheld the program for now, Park and his supporters argue.

“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 Park, whose family came to the U.S. from South Korea when he was 7 years old. “I haven’t really thought about what that’s going to mean if I’m not allowed back.”

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, which administers DACA, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

DACA recipients, commonly called “Dreamers” because of never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act, are protected from deportation because they were brought into the country illegally at a young age.

Park said the risk has been a delicate topic to broach with his parents, who cried out of joy when he won the scholarship.

“I’ve been avoiding that question,” he said days after graduating from Harvard last month. “This was especially meaningful for them. It was like a validation of the sacrifices they’ve made for me.”

Nearly 700,000 individuals are participating in DACA, which was created in 2012. Their status can be renewed every two years. To qualify, immigrants must have entered the country by 2007 and been under age 16 when they arrived.

The Trump administration issued an order winding down the program in 2017, but federal judges in New York, California and the District of Columbia ruled against those efforts last year and have effectively kept the program running.

The administration, which is seeking a Supreme Court review of those rulings, said last February that it would honor travel requests approved before it moved to end DACA, but it also warned recipients that going abroad without so-called “advance parole” approval “automatically terminates your deferred action under DACA.”