Press. voanews.com
The United
States is ending a program that shielded nearly 800,000 young undocumented
immigrants from deportation and allowed them to work and study in the country. New
applications, both for DACA status and work permits, will no longer be accepted
starting Tuesday, according to administration officials.
Trump approved
the decision, but sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions before cameras to
announce the controversial policy change. Sessions ended President Barack
Obama's five-year-old administrative program that created the Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals program with a terse statement: "DACA is being
rescinded."
Without the
executive-level protection, Congress will have six months to act if it wants to
continue to allow DACA recipients to remain in the United States.
The program
allowed young people, who typically entered the country as young children,
mostly from Mexico and Central American nations, to work and study in the U.S.
lawfully. DACA does not provide a path to citizenship or permanent legal
residence, instead promises that recipients would not be priorities for
deportation as long as they kept a clean criminal record.
Although the
president said in a written statement Tuesday that DACA recipients will not be
priorities for deportation, and Homeland Security officials indicated in a
press call that they would not actively pursue them, recipient Sarai Bravo told
VOA in New York she is still worried about her future in the country.
"This is
the only country and the only place that I know is home, I'm not planning on
leaving — unless I'm forced to. So, I'm going to continue fighting, coming with
the rest of the community and encouraging people to come out and fight, and
that is my plan. Trying to stay here forever," she said.
Asked whether
the White House would formalize in writing that DACA recipients would not be a
deportation priority, spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said only that they
are "not a targeted priority. … They weren't before, and they won't be
now." Despite widespread approval in favor of letting the young people
affected by the Obama order remain in the U.S., action by Congress is not certain.
Lawmakers for
years have been unsuccessful in substantially transforming U.S. immigration
policies. During Obama's eight-year tenure in the White House, the Senate
approved major policy changes only to see the legislation die in the House of
Representatives.
At protests
around the country Tuesday, DACA supporters rallied against the
administration's decision. In front of the White House, activist Gustavo Torres
told the crowd: "This president lied to our community ... he told us 'I
have a big hope for you dreamers.' He's a liar!"
Trump came into
office with a promise to eliminate DACA, but at times made statements that
seemed to ease up on that rhetoric. Since his inauguration, however, the
president has prioritized bolstering the country's deportation system, calling
for thousands more immigration and border agents to be hired.
In a statement
issued after Sessions' announcement, Trump said he "does not favor
punishing children, most of whom are adults, for the actions of their parents.
But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a
nation of laws." Sessions, an immigration hard-liner who had pressed Trump
to end the program, took no questions from reporters in announcing the end of
protections against mass deportations.
"We cannot
admit everyone who wants to come here," Sessions told reporters. "All
cannot be accepted." He added that limiting immigration "means we are
properly enforcing our laws." Once current DACA status expires for current
recipients, they could be subject to deportation proceedings if detained.
The Homeland
Security chief said that no current beneficiaries of the program would be
affected before March 5, 2018, giving Congress a chance to act legislatively.
DACA recipients whose permits expire before that date will be allowed to renew
if they do so by Oct. 5, 2017. DHS officials said no other renewals would be
acted on, and no one else will be allowed to apply after Tuesday.
Obama: Cutting
DACA 'cruel'
Acting Homeland
Security chief Elaine Duke explained earlier in the day that "the
administration's decision to terminate DACA was not taken lightly." "The
Department of Justice has carefully evaluated the program's constitutionality
and determined it conflicts with our existing immigration laws," she said.
Duke said that
attorneys general in several states, including Texas, on the southern U.S.
border with Mexico, had told Homeland Security officials that if Trump's
administration did not move to end Obama's program by Tuesday, it would seek a
court order to overturn the program. Conservative lawmakers and some Republican
officials have long contended that Obama's order amounted to impermissible
executive overreach. But in a statement Tuesday afternoon, former President
Barack Obama skewered the Trump administration's decision.
"To target these young people is wrong,
because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating because they want to
start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise
contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel," he said. "Let's
be clear: The action taken today isn't required legally. It's a political
decision, and a moral question.
Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may
have about immigration in general, we shouldn't threaten the future of this group
of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat,
who are not taking away anything from the rest of us." VOA News Center
reporter Ramon Taylor contributed to this report from New York.
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