With President Donald Trump now in office, many people fear that he may use an executive order to put an end to former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

During his presidential campaign, Trump said he would end DACA if elected. However, Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan recently said they are holding talks to find a compromise on the policy.

Marcela Pattinson, assistant director of community relations and outreach at the WSU Office of Multicultural Student Services, said the repeal of DACA would have negative effects on many WSU students.

“The majority of students we have right now have been able to use DACA as a way to support themselves inside the university,” Pattinson said. “In the case of DACA not being in place anymore, students will need more opportunities like scholarships to support themselves.”

Pattinson said that many undocumented students would be unable to work and would have to drop out of school for financial reasons if DACA was repealed.

Carolina Silva, graduate staff intern at the WSU Office of Multicultural Student Services, said many immigrant families fear the end of DACA.

“Kids our age are getting ready for the reality that they may have to say goodbye to their parents,” Silva said. “Families are getting ready to leave the country because they no longer feel safe, and they no longer feel like they are going to be able to have any sort of rights under the new leadership.”

DACA is an immigration policy implemented in 2012 which grants immigrants, who enter the country before the age of 16 and have a clean criminal record, a two-year, renewable period of deferred action from deportation, as well as eligibility for a work permit.

The policy began after the failure of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which was proposed to offer conditional permanent residency to certain undocumented immigrants.

750,000 immigrants have been given temporary residency and work permits under DACA, including 30,000 in Washington, according to a Fortune article.

A bipartisan effort to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the country’s current immigration policy has proposed “the Ban Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow the Economy Act,” (BRIDGE) according to the article. The BRIDGE act emphasizes the benefits migrant workers provide to the economy, and seeks to protect DACA beneficiaries until a more thorough immigration policy is implemented.