DACA: Trump to Delay Scrapping of ‘Dreamers’ Immigration Scheme

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protects 8,00,000 men & women called ‘Dreamers’ from deportation.

POTUS decided to delay enforcement of his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to give Congress time to devise an alternative.

(Photo: AP)

President Donald Trump has decided to scrap a program that shields immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children from deportation, but will give Congress six months to draft a bill to replace it, sources familiar with the situation said.

POTUS decided to delay enforcement of his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, to give Congress time to devise an alternative, the two sources said on 3 September.

DACA, an Obama-era program, protects nearly 800,000 young men and women, often called ‘Dreamers’ from deportation.

The decision, to be announced on 5 September, will seek to placate both sides in the immigration debate at a time when Trump is also grappling with North Korea's nuclear program and Houston's recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

Senior White House officials discussed the policy rollout on 3 September.

As a candidate, Trump pledged to immediately scrap the program but he ran into stiff opposition, including from senior members of his own party. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urged President Donald Trump on Friday not to rescind the Obama-era program. Ryan was joined by Senator Orrin Hatch, also a Republican.

Trump made a crackdown on illegal immigrants a centerpiece of his 2016 election campaign and has stepped up deportations since taking office in January. But business leaders say immigrants make important economic contributions and that ending the program would hit economic growth and tax revenue.

This move could affect as many as 1 million immigrants could be affected, NBC News reported. Even the US economy could take a serious hit if workers and students protected by DACA face deportation.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and hundreds of US executives appealed to Trump to retain DACA.

But US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin downplayed those warnings, telling Fox News Sunday he was "less concerned about the economic impact."

Most of the ‘Dreamers’ came from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. More than 200,000 live in California, while 100,000 are in Texas. New York, Illinois and Florida also have large numbers.

(With inputs from Reuters)