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Natasha Quiroga, PREP Director and Senior Counsel on the Educational Opportunities Project with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told WUSA9 many parents told her no documentation was ever provided to them at the time of separation. “If there was any documentation taken, it was not in the parents’ sight or view,” she said. “Sometimes, they were told by officials, ‘Okay, we’re going to take you to court now, we’re going to leave your children here’, but when they came back, the child was gone.”

Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the Justice Department’s move “wholly consistent with the administration’s unwavering hostility towards diversity in our schools,” and said it would continue to fight efforts to outlaw affirmative action in court. “The rescission of this guidance does not overrule forty years of precedent that affirms the constitutionality of a university’s limited use of race in college admissions.”

“Envía un mensaje de que el gobierno federal no cree en la diversidad racial y corremos el riesgo de que podamos ver a los funcionarios universitarios volviendo al tablero, revisando sus políticas y cambiando su enfoque de maneras que pueden ser realmente dañinas para nosotros como un país”, dice Kristen Clarke, presidente y directora ejecutiva del Comité de Abogados para los Derechos Civiles bajo la Ley.

“We condemn the Department of Education’s politically motivated attack on affirmative action and deliberate attempt to discourage colleges and universities from pursuing racial diversity at our nation’s colleges and universities,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The rescission of this guidance does not overrule forty years of precedent that affirms the constitutionality of a university’s limited use of race in college admissions. This most recent decision by the Department of Education is wholly consistent with the administration’s unwavering hostility towards diversity in our schools.”

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law issued a statement saying rescinding the guidance is a deliberate attempt to install fear and confusion on campuses. “We condemn the Department of Education’s politically motivated attack on affirmative action and deliberate attempt to discourage colleges and universities from pursuing racial diversity at our nation’s colleges and universities,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the group.

Civil rights groups criticized the Trump administration’s announcement, saying it went against decades of court precedent permitting colleges to take race into account. “We condemn the Department of Education’s politically motivated attack on affirmative action and deliberate attempt to discourage colleges and universities from pursuing racial diversity at our nation’s colleges and universities,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement.

Civil rights groups criticized the Trump administration’s announcement, saying it went against decades of court precedent permitting colleges to take race into account. “We condemn the Department of Education’s politically motivated attack on affirmative action and deliberate attempt to discourage colleges and universities from pursuing racial diversity at our nation’s colleges and universities,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement.

Attorney Brenda Shum with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law says the administration is once again signaling that it does not support diverse learning environments. “Affirmative action programs have benefited everyone in this country, particularly students of color but also women and girls,” Shum said. “We know that increasing diversity on our college campuses is essential to dismantling decades of institutional racism and sexism.”

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law President Kristen Clarke said in a statement that the decision to rescind the documents does not change the law surrounding affirmative action, but it could be a harbinger of future action from the Trump administration to chip away at the practice. “This most recent decision by the Department of Education is wholly consistent with the administration’s unwavering hostility towards diversity in our schools.”

Diversos grupos de libertades civiles deploraron la medida, diciendo que iba en contra de décadas de resoluciones judiciales que permitían que las universidades y los colegios tuvieeran en cuenta la raza. “Condenamos el ataque políticamente motivado del Departamento de Educación a la discriminación positiva y su intento deliberado de disuadir a las universidades de buscar la diversidad racial”, dijo Kristen Clarke, presidenta y directora ejecutiva del Lawyer’s Comitee for Civil Rights Under Law, en un comunicado.