Well, it’s been discussed. It’s been debated. And now the Trump White House supposedly has a final decision: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that originated under the Obama administration is over. There will be a six-month enforcement delay, however. Eliana Johnson of Politico has more [Emphasis mine]:
#BREAKING: Trump has decided to end DACA, with 6-month delayhttps://t.co/JVYxZrdLxW pic.twitter.com/CWREo77nmV
— POLITICO (@politico) September 4, 2017
President Donald Trump has decided to end the Obama-era program that grants work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children, according to two sources familiar with his thinking. Senior White House aides huddled Sunday afternoon to discuss the rollout of a decision likely to ignite a political firestorm — and fulfill one of the president’s core campaign promises.
Trump has wrestled for months with whether to do away with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. He has faced strong warnings from members of his own party not to scrap the program and struggled with his own misgivings about targeting minors for deportation.
Conversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program, the two sources said, though White House aides caution that — as with everything in the Trump White House — nothing is set in stone until an official announcement has been made.
In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, “thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.”
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Katie reported on Friday that a decision was imminent, though the White House said an official announcement is slated for Tuesday. Under DACA, there are around 800,000 illegal aliens benefitting from the program and they’ve been preparing “for the worst” (via USA Today):
We're taking it day by day, because one day it's one thing and another day it's another, but we must be prepared for the worst," said Luz Gallegos, community programs director at TODEC Legal Center. "We're making sure the community has all their family plans in place, making sure kids are aware, you know, if something were to happen to parents, what next steps to take."
[…]
Gary Finn, an Indio immigration attorney, said the effects of a DACA repeal would not be immediate. Some people would lose their jobs when their work permits expired, if not sooner. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could begin removal proceedings for DACA recipients, but that process takes years
"People may go into a panic, I'm kind of afraid of that, but it's not like ICE will be knocking on the doors the next day," Finn said.
Last week, Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported that one of the reasons why DACA was n the chopping block was that the Trump administration’s lawyers felt that they could not defend its legality. Moreover, Swan added that even the Department of Homeland Security noted that if Congress wanted to keep DACA as it is today, it would require an act of Congress. The constitutionality of this Obama-era executive action has been in legal limbo for years. In short, the program allows illegal aliens who entered the U.S. as minors to be shielded from deportation, with the possibility of a work permit, if they meet certain criteria. The application fee is $495. Donald Trump ran on a hardline immigration enforcement platform. It’s looking like this will be another promise kept by Trump.
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