By Kayli Reese
[email protected]
Many U.S. medical schools do not allow students who benefit from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals submit applications, and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine is among them.
UI student Emiliano Martinez, the president of Hawkeyes for DREAM Iowa and Latinx constituency student senator, said DACA students can only apply to around 40 medical schools across the country, including Ivy League medical schools and places with high Latino populations, such as Texas or Nevada.
For many DACA students in the Midwest, he said, two choices exist: moving far away from home or not going to medical school.
“If I would have told you this 70 years ago, it would be called segregation,” Martinez said. “It’s ridiculous and has no place in 2017 in this country. Even if one student can’t apply, that’s too many in 2017.”
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At the UI medical college, DACA students are not admitted.
“We do admit U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and political asylees,” said Tom Moore, the media-relations director for UI Health Care.
DACA students can, however, obtain an undergraduate degree at the UI. Anne Bassett, the media-relations director for UI Strategic Communication, said DACA status, as well as the repeal of DACA, does not affect on the UI admissions process.
“The University of Iowa does not ask for citizenship or immigration status as a part of the application process,” Bassett said. “We do not maintain information on undocumented students or students with DACA status.”
The UI medical-school application, Martinez said, notifies DACA students they need not apply; he has seen the application and knows students who have used it.
Martinez said no student should be denied filling out an application because of a political label. The only issue is one of opportunity, he said, and he believes DACA students deserve the opportunity to apply to one of the best medical schools in the country at the UI, especially during the health-care shortage Iowa suffers currently.
Hawkeyes for DREAM Iowa began in spring 2016, Martinez said, and has worked this year to bring issues to the forefront. The main focus of this year was going to be about medical-school applications, he said, but the repeal of DACA took over the focus.
By talking about the DACA repeal and having a DACA rally in Iowa City, he said, an activated community built up to help discuss issues DACA residents face and talk about solutions for these issues.
The goal for Hawkeyes for DREAM Iowa, Martinez said, is to allow DACA students to apply to the UI medical school by 2018.
The UI College of Law was one of the first law schools in the country to have a woman graduate from the program, Martinez said. If the UI could be the first medical school to have DACA students accepted in the Big Ten, he said, hopefully, this could spread to other nearby schools.
“We’re not just going to put out letters of solidarity or UISG resolutions,” Martinez said. “We need to avoid this issue being just a check box. We need to talk about issues and solutions, not just empathize [with DACA students].”