Trump To End Protections For Nearly 800,000 Dreamers If Congress Can't Pass A Deal

Elise Foley
Updated

WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration is officially terminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in six months and punting the matter to Congress, putting nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation if the president and members of the House and Senate can’t make a deal to protect them.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ― who later said he has “a great heart” and “great love” for undocumented young people ― sent out Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce his policy decision. Sessions, who supports enforcing current law through increased deportations, has opposed the DACA program since its inception under President Barack Obama in 2012. As a senator, he helped block legislative efforts to help so-called “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children.

“We are people of compassion and we are people of law,” Sessions said during a speech at the Department of Justice. “But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws. ... The compassionate thing to do is to end the lawlessness, enforce our laws and, if Congress chooses to make changes to those laws, to do so through the process set forth by our founders in a way that advances the interest of the American people.”

DACA protections, which last for two years and allow Dreamers to work legally, won’t end immediately. Current DACA recipients whose permits expire between now and March 5 can apply to renew them, but must submit their renewal applications by Oct. 5 or will be unable to do so. Individuals who do not currently have DACA protections cannot receive permits unless they applied to the program before Sept. 5.

Dreamers whose permits expire on March 6 or later will begin to lose their protections and work permits as soon as they expire, putting them at risk of deportation.

Trump said in a statement that he “advised the Department of Homeland Security that DACA recipients are not enforcement priorities unless they are criminals, are involved in criminal activity, or are members of a gang.”

But losing DACA protections would nonetheless put Dreamers at risk of being sent away from the country they’ve lived in since they were children. Although administration officials have said their focus is on deporting criminals, they have also made clear that no undocumented immigrant is safe from being detained or forced out of the country. That includes Dreamers, some of whom have already been locked up.

Department of Homeland Security officials said before the announcement that there are no plans to specifically target current DACA recipients or use their information for enforcement purposes, although they will continue to do so if needed for criminal or national security investigations.

The official Trump administration announcement comes on the Sept. 5 deadline set by 10 state attorneys general who threatened legal action if Trump did not announce a phaseout of DACA by that date. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III (R) backed off that threat last week, but the others continued to demand an end to the program. The threat was not a court order, so it was not a mandate for the Trump administration to end the program ahead of a legal challenge or ruling.

Trump misstated the facts of the threat in a statement after Sessions’ announcement. The president claimed that “officials from 10 States are suing over the program,” even though they had not taken legal action and only nine of the 10 states had maintained that threat.

Trump decided to end DACA against the wishes of Democrats and some members of his own party, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who said Congress should get the chance to pass a bill.

The president said on Tuesday afternoon that he hoped Congress would move forward to help Dreamers, although he said nothing about what he thinks they should do.

“I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly,” Trump said in the White House. “And I can tell you, speaking to members of Congress, they want to be able to do something and do it right. ... I think it’s going to work out very well and long-term, it’s going to be the right solution.”

Ahead of Trump’s announcement, a number of Republicans said they would be willing to support protections for Dreamers that Democrats have attempted to get through Congress multiple times.

Most Republicans opposed those past measures, including the Dream Act, a bill first introduced in 2001 that would grant legal status to some undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The bill has a small number of Republican supporters, but the White House immediately shot it down when it was re-introduced in the Senate in July.

Some Republicans are pushing what they say is a more conservative version of the Dream Act, called the Recognizing America’s Children Act, or RAC Act, which would offer a path to citizenship to a smaller category of Dreamers.

Sessions’ speech only mentioned one piece of legislation specifically: the RAISE Act, which would slash legal immigration numbers and has nothing to do with Dreamers. His remarks more broadly made the case against offering Dreamers legal status, something he has opposed many times throughout his career.

Sessions said that DACA “denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs” ― an argument that could also be applied to legislation that allows Dreamers to stay in the country and work legally. He claimed that a surge in unaccompanied minors at the southwest U.S. border was also due to DACA, although those children were ineligible for the program. Sessions also said that the U.S. “must set and enforce a limit on how many immigrants we admit each year.”

“This does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way,” Sessions said. “It means we are properly enforcing our laws as Congress has passed them.”

Trump’s statement similarly emphasized other changes to the immigration system. Like Sessions, he cited the RAISE Act and said his “first and highest priority in advancing immigration reform must be to improve jobs, wages and security for American workers and their families.”

“As I’ve said before, we will resolve the DACA issue with heart and compassion – but through the lawful Democratic process – while at the same time ensuring that any immigration reform we adopt provides enduring benefits for the American citizens we were elected to serve,” the statement read. “We must also have heart and compassion for unemployed, struggling, and forgotten Americans.”

This story has been updated with Donald Trump’s statements.

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April 2015

At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: “Everything’s coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. It’s like a big mess. Blah. It’s like vomit.”
At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: “Everything’s coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. It’s like a big mess. Blah. It’s like vomit.”

June 2015

At a speech announcing his campaign: "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

August 2015

On NBC's "Meet the Press": “We’re going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go." 
On NBC's "Meet the Press": “We’re going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go." 

September 2015

On CBS's "60 Minutes": “We’re rounding ‘em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And they’re going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesn’t sound nice. But not everything is nice.”
On CBS's "60 Minutes": “We’re rounding ‘em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And they’re going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesn’t sound nice. But not everything is nice.”

November 2015

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": “You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely." 
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": “You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely." 

February 2016

At a GOP primary debate: “We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back ― some will come back, the best, through a process.”
At a GOP primary debate: “We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back ― some will come back, the best, through a process.”

March 2016

At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we don’t. We either have a country or we don’t. We have borders or we don’t have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.”
At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we don’t. We either have a country or we don’t. We have borders or we don’t have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.”

April 2016

At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": “They’re going to go, and we’re going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... They’re going to go, and then come back and come back legally.”
At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": “They’re going to go, and we’re going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... They’re going to go, and then come back and come back legally.”

July 2016

At the Republican National Convention: "Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied ― and every politician who has denied them ― to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced."

September 2016

At a rally: “Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don’t have a country.”
At a rally: “Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don’t have a country.”

September 2016

On "The Dr. Oz Show": “Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldn’t be in the country. They only come in the country legally.”
On "The Dr. Oz Show": “Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldn’t be in the country. They only come in the country legally.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.