The University of Iowa and more than 500 other institutions are prepared to work with President Donald Trump to preserve the rights of all students to earn an education.

Universities from around the nation sent Trump a statement last week thanking him for comments he made at a February press conference regarding “Dreamers,” undocumented youth protected by former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order deferring deportation of immigrant minors.

“You have these incredible kids — in many cases, not in all cases,” Trump said at the press conference. “In some of the cases, they’re having DACA, and they’re gang members, and they’re drug members, too. But you have some absolutely incredible kids — I would say mostly — they were brought in here in such a way.”

The universities that signed onto the statement said they are willing to work with Trump to ensure DACA students continue to “contribute to our great nation every day,” according to the statement.

“Unfortunately, many of these young people now live in fear that the program will be rolled back or revoked,” the statement said. “In order to lift this cloud of fear, we ask that you commit to allowing these productive and high-achieving individuals to continue to work and study while your administration and Congress arrive at a permanent solution.”

Citing a study by the CATO Institute, the statement said, “deporting the approximately 750,000 people registered in the program would cost over $60 billion in lost tax revenue and result in a $280 billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade.”

UI President Bruce Harreld signed a statement in support of DACA students released by Pomona College in November 2016. The UI Student Government also passed a resolution in February to voice solidarity with DACA students.

Harreld said in an interview with The Daily Iowan earlier this month that DACA students “are as welcome as anybody else is given the admissions standards we have” because information regarding their citizenship status is not collected during the process. He also said the UI neither establishes nor enforces immigration policy.

“Everyone’s welcome,” he said. “I think our attitude is we’ll do everything we can to help individuals, and also our attitude is the people who are guests in our country are better off when they touch base with our culture and they see the love and support they get from our community, and wherever they go in the world, they become friends.”