Rhodes Scholar heading to Oxford after DACA uncertainty

The first “Dreamer” to be awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship is finally poised to attend Oxford after years of uncertainty about whether the U.S. would allow his return home as a DACA recipient

BOSTON -- The first “Dreamer” to be awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship is finally poised to attend the University of Oxford after years of uncertainty about whether the U.S. would allow him to return home as a DACA recipient. Federal immigration officials last week approved Jin Park’s application to travel to England in the coming weeks, according to his law firm WilmerHale in Boston. Park, whose family immigrated from South Korea when he was 7 years old, will be joined at Oxford by Santiago Potes, a Miami resident and 2020 graduate of Columbia University in New York who became the second American on DACA status to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship last November, according to the Rhodes Trust. “We are thrilled that two DACA Rhodes Scholars will be heading to Oxford next month to start their courses, finally knowing they can safely and legally return after their studies to the only homes they know,” said Elliot Gerson, the American secretary for the British organization, which is helping prepare the visas for the two incoming students.