U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will end protections for young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, but with a six-month delay, people familiar with the plans said on Sunday.
The delay in the formal dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme would be intended to give Congress time to decide whether it wants to address the status of the so-called Dreamers in legislation, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking. But it was not immediately clear how the six-month delay would work in practice and what would happen to people who currently have work permits under the programme, or whose permits expire during the six-onth stretch.
It was also unclear exactly what would happen if Congress failed to pass a measure by the considered deadline. Two people familiar with the president’s thinking spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a planned Tuesday announcement.
The President, who has been grappling with the issue for months, has been known to change his mind in the past and could still shift course. The plan was first reported by Politico Sunday evening.
Mr. Trump has been wrestling for months with what to do with the Obama-era DACA programme, which has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the form of two-year, renewable work permits.
The expected move would come as the White House faces a Tuesday deadline set by Republican state officials threatening to continue sue the Trump administration if the president did not end the program. It also would come as Trump digs in on appeals to his base as he finds himself increasingly under fire, with his poll numbers hanging at near-record lows.
Mr. Trump had been personally torn as late as last week over how to deal with what are undoubtedly the most sympathetic immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Many came to the U.S. as young children and have no memories of or connections to the countries they were born in.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump slammed DACA as illegal “amnesty” and vowed to eliminate the program the day he took office. But since his election, Trump has wavered on the issue, at one point telling The Associated Press that those covered could “rest easy.”
Mr. Trump had been unusually candid as he wrestled with the decision in the early months of his administration. During a February press conference, he said the topic was “a very, very difficult subject for me, I will tell you. To me, it’s one of the most difficulty subjects I have.”
“You have some absolutely incredible kids I would say mostly,” he said. adding- “I love these kids.”
All the while, his administration continued to process applications and renew DACA work permits, to the dismay of immigration hard-liners.
News of the president’s expected decision appeared to anger advocates on both sides of the issue.
“IF REPORTS ARE TRUE, Pres Trump better prepare for the civil rights fight of his admin. A clean DREAM Act is now a Nat Emergency – DefendDACA,” tweeted New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat.
But Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has called DACA unconstitutional, warned that a delay in dismantling it would amount to “Republican suicide.”
“Ending DACA now gives chance 2 restore Rule of Law. Delaying so R Leadership can push Amnesty is Republican suicide,” he wrote.
The Obama administration created the DACA programme in 2012 as a stopgap to protect some young immigrants from deportation as they pushed unsuccessfully for a broader immigration overhaul in Congress.
The programme protected people in the country illegally who could prove they arrived before they were 16, had been in the United States for several years and had not committed a crime while being here. It mimicked versions of the so-called DREAM Act, which would have provided legal status for young immigrants but was never passed by Congress.
As of July 31, 2015, more than 790,000 young immigrants had been approved under the program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
