University of Miami DACA Scholarships Now Under Federal Investigation

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education's (DOE) Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the University of Miami (UM) for offering scholarships to undocumented immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The University of Miami is one of five universities now caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for allegedly discriminating against U.S. citizens by providing scholarships only available to DACA students, otherwise known as Dreamers. The other four universities are the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan. UM is the only private school under investigation.

"On January 20, 2025, President Trump promised that 'every single day of the Trump Administration, [he] will, very simply, put America first,'" Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights, said in the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) press release. "Neither the Trump Administration's America first policies nor the Civil Right Act of 1964's prohibition on national origin permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States."

The Legal Insurrection Foundation's Equal Protection Project, a nonprofit whose website states it is "devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity," filed the complaints that spurred the investigation. William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, applauded the news in the DOE press release. 

"Protecting equal access to education includes protecting the rights of American-born students," he said. "At the Equal Protection Project, we are gratified that the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is acting on our complaints regarding scholarships that excluded American-born students. Discrimination against American-born students must not be tolerated."

The complaints argue that UM's U Dreamers Program provides unlawful exclusionary funding based on national origin.
According to the UM website, the program is available to "academically talented and admissible" DACA and undocumented high school seniors and transfer students.

The website continues, "UM is committed to providing students of all nationalities and citizenship statuses with opportunities to nurture their talents and pursue their goals."

The Trump administration has scrutinized several universities nationwide over their handling of campus anti-Semitism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and alleged violations related to race-based scholarships. The DOE has threatened to pull federal funding if these institutions do not comply with Trump's demands and end all DEI programs.

This new investigation will also look into other scholarships for underrepresented groups, including Louisville's Dawn Wilson scholarship for LGBTQ+ students of color and Western Michigan's Elissa Gatlin Endowed Scholarship for African American, Native American, or Hispanic American students.