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  • Press Release

    AAMC Statement on U.S. District Court Decision on DACA

    Media Contacts

    John Buarotti, Sr. Public Relations Specialist

    AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement on the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas’ decision that the 2012 Obama Administration Executive Order creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful:

    The AAMC is alarmed by today’s District Court ruling that undermines the nation’s health by jeopardizing the work authorization of nearly 30,000 health care workers with DACA status at a time when our nation’s health care workforce is still strained by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    We appreciate that the judge’s order is stayed as to current DACA recipients. However, the cloud of uncertainty resulting from this court decision serves no one. We urge Congress to enact a permanent path to citizenship for these individuals, such as the U.S. Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 6), which recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.”


    The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened participation in the AAMC by U.S. and international academic health centers.