Summary: Through Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump formally announced his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
President Donald Trump is continuing his promise to be tough on immigration by ending DACA. At a press conference held Tuesday morning, he had Attorney General Jeff Sessions announce Trump’s decision to end the program that gave children of illegal immigrants the ability to remain in this country.
“The program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” Sessions stated. “The policy was implemented unilaterally, to great controversy and legal concern.”
Trump ordered an end to the Dreamer program, which was created during predecessor President Barack Obama’s administration. Trump urged Congress to replace DACA with other legislation before its official end on March 5, 2018.
“I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents,” Mr. Trump said. “But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.”
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) currently has almost 800,000 people benefiting from the program, and Trump’s announcement means that no new applicants may apply. The program shielded undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation, provided that they are either in school, working, or have served/are serving in the military.
During his announcement, Sessions said that DACA was an “open-ended circumvention of immigration laws.” He also added that undocumented people were lawbreakers who hurt native-born Americans by driving down wages and taking jobs.
“The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border with humanitarian consequences,” Mr. Sessions said. “It denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs.”
The DACA announcement has been met with mixed responses from Trump’s party. This summer, several conservative state attorney generals threatened to sue the government if Trump did not rescind DACA, but there are some prominent Republican congressmen who have publicly said that ending DACA was not the way.
“I strongly believe that children who were illegally brought into this country through no fault of their own should not be forced to return to a country they do not know,” Arizona Senator McCain said in a statement. “The 800,000 innocent young people granted deferred action under DACA over the last several years are pursuing degrees, starting careers and contributing to our communities in important ways.”
President Obama created the program as a way to protect young, undocumented immigrants from deportation; but without the program, those in the program, known as Dreamers, may be forced to return to their home countries, places where they are strangers. Trump officials said that Dreamers may renew their legal status until October 5, which will give them two more years in this country. However, if Congress fails to create new legislation in time, there is a possibility that Dreamers may face deportation as early as March.
“To target hopeful young strivers who grew up here is wrong, because they’ve done nothing wrong,” Obama said on Twitter.
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