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Prior to Donald Trump's bold statement against the american immigration policy, DACA, I had already been aware of his stance on the issue. I had often seen on the news the comments Trump would make towards illegal immigrants and how he referred to Obama's DACA program as a mistake. His call for action in wanting to revoke the DACA program was seen by millions, including myself. Already having prior knowledge on this issue it encouraged me to further research this topic to see the reactions of the public as well as congress. Also, it seemed of great interest to me as it affects my Hispanic community.

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The Washington Post explains the consequences to the 800,000 immigrants under the DACA program, and the indecisiveness of Trump on deciding whether or not to revoke this program. These dreamers would no longer be protected from deportation and unable to work legally in the U.S. Trump initially accused Obama's program as enabling illegal immigrants to receive citizenship, abusing its executive authority. He later contradicted himself by speaking fondly of the program and describing the dreamers as "incredible kids". Arising the question if Trump would change his mind. This source is somewhat credible as not all of its sources were listed.

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President Trump announced Tuesday that his administration would end an Obama-era program that allowed young undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional and challenging Congress to address the issue.

Trump's decision, coming after weeks of intensive deliberations with aides, sparked fears among advocates that nearly 800,000 immigrants who have lived illegally in the United States since they were children would be subject to removal once their government-issued work permits expire under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The president and his top advisers said they had no choice but to end DACA, framing it as an abuse of executive power by President Barack Obama that was unlikely to survive a legal challenge. They called on lawmakers to determine the ultimate fate of DACA recipients, known as "dreamers," and emphasized that no work permits would be revoked for at least six months to give Congress time to act.

In a sign of the political sensitivities involved, Trump did not make public remarks, deferring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to unveil the decision at the Justice Department.

In a written statement, Trump asserted that Obama made "an end-run around Congress" that violated "the core tenets that sustain our Republic." He added that there can be "no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will."

A wide array of politicians, civic leaders and business executives spoke out against Trump's move, including the Mexican government, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Catholic Charities of New York. Some Democrats, including New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, vowed to pursue legal action to protect the dreamers.

In a lengthy post on his Facebook page, Obama called Trump's move "cruel" and said it represented a "political decision" to a "moral question."

"Ultimately," Obama wrote, "this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we'd want our own kids to be treated. It's about who we are as a people - and who we want to be."

Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said the agency would no longer accept new applications for DACA other than those submitted before Tuesday. Immigrants enrolled in the program will be permitted to continue until their two-year work permits expire. And those whose permits expire through March 5, 2018, are allowed to seek renewals provided they do so by Oct. 5, officials said.

If Congress fails to act, dreamers would not be high priorities for deportation, the DHS officials said, but they would be issued notices to appear at immigration court if they are encountered by federal immigration officers. There are no plans for DHS to use personal information, including home addresses, of dreamers who registered for work permits to aid in deportation operations unless there is an immediate concern over national security, officials said.

"Our enforcement priorities remain unchanged," Trump said in his statement. "We are focused on criminals, security threats, recent border-crossers, visa overstays, and repeat violators. I have 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."

Congressional leaders from both parties said the time was right to pursue a legislative solution to the dreamers, but they did not lay out a clear path on an issue that has vexed lawmakers since President Ronald Reagan signed the last major comprehensive immigration bill in 1986. The Dream Act, which would have offered a path to citizenship to dreamers, failed narrowly in the Senate in 2010 after passing in the House.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who last week had urged Trump not to end the program until Congress acted, called DACA a "clear abuse of executive authority" by Obama.

"It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country," Ryan said.

Trump had equivocated for months as pressure mounted among immigration hawks to fulfill a campaign promise to end DACA. Reflecting his personal ambivalence, he had vowed to show "great heart" in his decision and declared that dreamers could "rest easy."

But a threat from Texas and several other states to sue the administration if it did not end DACA by Tuesday forced Trump to make a decision. Several senior aides, including Sessions, who declared the Justice Department would be unable to defend the program in court, lobbied the president to end DACA. Others, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the former DHS secretary, cautioned that terminating the program would cause chaos for young immigrants who enjoy broad popular support.

The Obama administration had defended the creation of the 2012 program by citing the precedent of "prosecutorial discretion" in which law enforcement agencies with limited resources set priorities to fulfill their obligations. With more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, the government had the ability to deport only a small fraction each year, Obama aides said at the time.

Sessions wrote a memo Monday concluding that DACA is unconstitutional, prompting acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke to issue orders Tuesday to phase out the program, officials said. In his remarks, Sessions said Obama "sought to achieve specifically what the legislative branch refused to do" and added that "the Department of Justice cannot defend this overreach.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded Trump's decision, saying DACA "went far beyond the executive branch's legitimate authority." Paxton said that as a result of Trump's decision, the states would lift their threat of legal action.

DACA supporters expressed skepticism that an administration that has taken a hard line on immigration would exercise restraint with dreamers once the work permits begin to expire.

More than 300 immigration activists protested front of the White House, calling Trump a "liar" and a "monster," and more than two dozen demonstrators were reportedly arrested outside Trump Tower in New York. Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, resigned from Trump's presidential diversity committee over the "disgraceful action."
In a tweet, former vice president Joe Biden wrote: "Brought by parents, these children had no choice in coming here. Now they'll be sent to countries they've never known. Cruel. Not America."

And in a sign that both sides could seek to use the dreamers to rally their political bases, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent out a fundraising pitch to Democratic supporters, calling the decision "quite possibly the cruelest thing President Trump has ever done."

That prompted White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to counter that Pelosi's fundraising was the "most heartless" act of the day.

The fight over the dreamers now shifts to Congress, where several new proposals have been put forward. Those include the Bridge Act, a bipartisan bill with 25 co-sponsors that would extend DACA protections for three years to give Congress time to enact permanent legislation.

But the White House and conservative Republicans are likely to demand additional provisions to boost border security, such as funding for Trump's proposed border wall or new measures to restrict legal immigration. In his statement, Trump expressed support for the Raise Act, a proposal from conservative Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) to slash legal immigration levels by half over a decade.

"We will resolve the DACA issue with heart and compassion - but through the lawful Democratic process," Trump said, "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 president was reportedly torn over the decision, according to White House officials, split between his desire to appear tough on illegal immigration and his personal feelings toward the dreamers, most of whom have lived in the United States most of their lives.

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Trump administration announces end of immigration protection program for 'dreamers'

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President Trump announced Tuesday that his administration would end an Obama-era program that allowed young undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional and challenging Congress to address the issue.

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This article by VOX illustrates the disadvantages faced by undocumented immigrants and how DACA aided them by gaining opportunities. They reveal the upsetting realization on how the youth of these illegal immigrants were not granted the same opportunities as their peers, such as financial aid, obtaining a drivers license etc. They emphasize how DACA was a savior to these 800,000 people, as it allowed them to pursue their careers, financially support their families etc. They describe Trump's decision as a tragedy,as it would tear down everything DACA has helped build for these people. I strongly agree with this article because DACA enables these dreamers to be successful without the fear of being deported to a country they hardly remember. DACA should be continues as it allows this youth to contribute to our country's success.

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President Donald Trump is ending a program that allowed many unauthorized immigrants to work and live in the US - the most aggressive move of his immigration crackdown so far, and a decision that will ultimately put nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the US as children or young teenagers at risk of deportation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the government will stop granting protections from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, instituted by President Barack Obama in 2012.

According to an official Department of Homeland Security memo, people who have already applied for DACA protection will have their applications processed normally, but the government won't accept any new applications after Tuesday.

Those currently covered under the program - which grants protections for two years - will be able to retain their protections and work permits until they expire.

If their DACA protections are set to expire before March 5, they will have a month - until October 5 - to apply for one last renewal. And those who are set to lose their protections on March 6 or later will simply fall back into unauthorized status.

The catch: All of this will happen only if Congress fails to pass a bill in the next six months that protects DACA recipients, either by continuing to offer them temporary protection or granting them a path to legalization.

Trump's decision is an attempt to shift pressure from the White House (after several months of back and forth within the Trump administration about the fate of a program associated with Obama, and which its critics see as an unconstitutional amnesty) and onto Congress to find a way to keep DACA recipients living safely and working in the US.

But after Congress's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, it's not clear whether Congress will be able to get its act together to pass an immigration bill - or what a bill that could satisfy both 60 senators and the president would look like.

In the meantime, the Trump administration is acting as if Congress won't pass a bill - slowly winding down DACA now, in anticipation of sunsetting the program entirely starting on March 5. It isn't punting on DACA; it's preparing to end it, albeit gradually.

Tuesday marks the beginning of the end for the DACA era: a half-decade period during which a generation of young immigrants, now predominantly in their 20s and 30s, were able to put down roots and advance careers in the US without the constant threat of deportation.

It marks the beginning of six months of existential anxiety, as hundreds of thousands of immigrants struggle to go on with their lives without knowing whether they'll be accepted as inhabitants of the United States by April - or whether the only certainty they'll get at the end of six months is knowing the date on which they'll lose their ability to work in the US legally and gain the constant threat of deportation.

Beyond the risk of deportation, immigrants currently protected by DACA now face the loss of their ability to work legally in the US; of their driver's licenses in many states; and of the assurance that they are fundamentally wanted in the country where they grew up.

For the next six months, DACA recipients will live under crushing uncertainty. After that time, if Congress doesn't pass a bill, DACA recipients - one by one - will face an impossible choice.

They can resign themselves to the lives they lived five years ago. They can try to retain the gains they made over the past five years, even without the protections that made it possible. Or they can try to find a more welcoming place in which to live.

DACA transformed hundreds of thousands of lives

The question of what to do with unauthorized immigrants who'd come to the US as children has been a subject of political debate for the past 16 years - ever since the first version of the DREAM Act (which would allow those immigrants to apply for legal status and eventually allow them to seek US citizenship) was introduced in 2001.

But the DREAM Act never passed Congress. In the most recent attempt, in December 2010, the bill failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster. Meanwhile, although the Obama administration said it was changing the way immigration enforcement operated, agents continued to arrest and deport some "low-priority" immigrants - including those who would have qualified for the DREAM Act.

DACA, announced by President Obama in June 2012 and rolled out that August, was a solution to that policy problem: It allowed immigrants to apply for protection proactively; if granted protection, they were allowed to work legally in the US.

It was always temporary. The executive branch can't create new ways for immigrants to get legal status in the US, it can just temporarily "defer" their deportation and allow them to work legally.

But for DREAMers, the ability to work legally and live without deportation threat - even for just a couple of years at a time - was appealing enough that nearly 800,000 immigrants, over half of those estimated to qualify, ultimately sought protection under the program.

And for those immigrants, for five years, their lives changed.

Research on the effects of DACA consistently shows that it's opened up educational and economic opportunities. The most recent survey, conducted in early August 2017 by UC San Diego professor Tom Wong, under the auspices of the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, found that annual earnings had increased 80 percent under DACA - from an average of $20,000 to an average of $36,000. (This includes immigrants who are working part time, or who are working while enrolled in school, as well as those with full-time jobs.) Sixty-five percent had bought their first car; 16 percent had become homeowners.

Five percent of DACA recipients had started their own businesses. Sixty percent of DACA recipients above the age of 25 - in other words, those most likely to have been in the workforce before DACA was rolled out in 2012 - said that with DACA they'd been able to find jobs that better suited the education and training they already had; 61 percent said they'd been able to find jobs that suited the careers they wanted to have.

These changes can't be totally explained by the simple fact that good jobs aren't often available to people without legal work papers.

The truth of DACA is that despite the stereotype of the high-achieving, highly educated DREAMer, many unauthorized immigrants growing up in the US didn't achieve their academic or professional potential simply because they couldn't see what good it would do them to succeed. As DREAMers hit their mid- to late teens, and their peers started to be able to do things they couldn't - get driver's licenses, apply for financial aid - many of them "transitioned to illegality," suffering mental-health crises and often losing a desire to achieve in school because they realized the country they thought of as their own didn't actually have opportunities for them.

There's evidence that DACA prevented those crises. Immigrants protected by it felt American, welcomed, normal. Their mental health was better than the mental health of immigrants who didn't qualify for DACA. They were able to help their parents and families. They were able to put down roots.

And starting on March 6 - unless Congress disrupts the Trump administration's current plans - those roots are going to be, immigrant by immigrant, tugged at and torn up.

Trump's attempting to use Congress to avoid responsibility either for ending DACA or protecting it in court

DACA wasn't originally a hot-button wedge issue. The Obama administration took up the idea of a "deferred action" program under sustained pressure from immigrant-rights organizations, often led by DREAMers themselves; it announced DACA in hopes of mobilizing Latino voters in the 2012 presidential election.

It protected a population that members of the public across the political spectrum found "deserving" - and that few politicians were willing to say they wanted to see deported.

But it was President Obama's attempt to expand deferred action to the parents of American citizens in 2014, eventually thwarted by the courts, that put the existing DACA program in the crosshairs. At the same time, immigration reformers in the Republican Party were losing power. The party's immigration hawks were gaining strength, and Donald Trump was rising to the top of the presidential primary on a hardline immigration platform.

Trump promised in the first 100 days of his presidency to revoke all of Obama's unconstitutional executive actions - which was widely assumed to include DACA. Immediately after the election, DACA recipients understood that they could be at risk as soon as January 20.

But Trump appeared to develop a belated understanding of just how emotionally and politically touchy a subject it was to revoke protections for people who grew up in the US. He praised the DREAMers to Time magazine in December, and acknowledged that the problem was "very tough." He assured the public that he had a "big heart" and would come up with a solution that would have "a lot of heart."

Ultimately, though, no compromise was forthcoming - Trump ended the program in exactly the way an executive order drafted, but not signed, in January would have done.

The timing of the decision was likely provoked by a threat from a group of Republican state officials, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, to sue the federal government if it didn't end DACA before September 5. Several powerful Trump policy advisers - including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who would have to defend DACA in court in the event of a lawsuit - have pushed for an end to DACA, as well.

Trump's decision to announce an end to DACA now, but delay its implementation for six months, is something of an attempt to have his cake and eat it too: The White House appears to hope that the states will back down from their threat to sue (though it's not clear that the states will comply), while trying to avoid the president getting blamed for targeting a politically popular group of immigrants.

Several bills that would offer some protection to DACA recipients have already been introduced in Congress, and many Republicans - including many Democrats, as well as Republicans who've long defended DREAMers like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and vulnerable Republicans in swing districts - have joined Democrats in calling for Congress to pass one of them before DACA ends.

But Congress's agenda is already extremely tight for the next six months - with a key government-funding deadline to meet at the end of the month, one last potential chance to repeal Obamacare, and a desire to pass tax reform.

Furthermore, it's not clear what conservatives (including the president) would demand in exchange for protecting DACA recipients in a bill. In August, the administration floated the idea of a "grand bargain" that would legalize DACA recipients in return for a conservative wish list on immigration enforcement and future restrictions on legal immigration. That idea appears to have little support among Democrats or pro-DACA Republicans. But if there aren't enough pro-DACA Republicans to pass a bill without enforcement "tradeoffs," it might be hard to find something Democrats will be willing to give up.

If Congress succeeds, DACA recipients could end up able to get full legal status in the US - more than DACA provided them. If Congress fails, the White House will try to blame them for not having acted - while Congress will be able to blame the White House for actually ending the program.

To DACA recipients themselves, though, the distinction won't matter.

A "delay" isn't much comfort to immigrants themselves

In practice, the end of DACA will be immediate for many people: Anyone who hasn't yet applied for DACA protections, either because they aren't yet 15 years old or because they haven't managed to pull together the $495 application fee, will be barred from the program.

Anyone whose DACA protections are set to expire before March 5, but isn't able to pull their application for renewal together in the next month - as many as two months before they've been planning to renew - will lose protections even before the official March 5 "end date."

And the government will stop processing any requests from DACA recipients to leave the country (what's called "advance parole") immediately. People who already have advance parole can keep it, but any applications still pending will be denied.

In other words, what the Trump administration is doing isn't punting on DACA for six months. It's slowly winding down DACA, in anticipation of ending it entirely. It's saying that Congress should act, but acting as if it won't.

That's a commitment that DACA recipients themselves have every reason to take seriously. They've been living under the threat of DACA revocation since Trump's election in November. They've seen Trump's administration attempt to deport a few DACA recipients who were supposed to be protected. And now, they have a deadline over which they have no control - but which will determine the course of the rest of their lives.

What it will mean to lose DACA varies from immigrant to immigrant. Immigrants working full-time jobs will have to leave them to comply with the law, or continue working at legal risk to themselves and their employers. Immigrants in school will be able to remain enrolled, in nearly all cases, but some might have trouble retaining their financial aid for the rest of their educations (in addition to not knowing what jobs they could get in the US with the degrees they're working to obtain).

And then there's the threat of deportation.

Because DACA recipients gave extensive personal information to the government when they applied, many of them could easily be tracked down, arrested, and placed in deportation proceedings if the Trump administration chose to do so. Under Obama, DACA information was protected from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by privacy regulations, but an executive order signed by President Trump in January relaxed those restrictions.

In theory, Trump administration officials claim they're going after immigrants with criminal records. In practice, it appears they're going after the lowest-hanging fruit - the immigrants they can most easily track down and pick up. If that's true, it puts DREAMers at substantial risk.

There are too many DACA recipients for the administration to arrest all of them, much less deport them - and because DACA recipients haven't been previously deported or ordered deported, it won't be possible to deport them now without putting them through a yearslong immigration court process. But the risk of deportation is, if anything, higher after DACA than it was beforehand.

DACA recipients have months to prepare for that possibility. But many of them -especially those who are employed full time - have no good options.

They can attempt to continue to live the lives they're living right now, under DACA: working, driving around, being "undocumented and unafraid." If they do that, they're putting themselves in legal jeopardy multiple times a day, and increasing the risk of their deportation.

They can try to make plans to leave the country once their DACA grants expire: selling the car or house they purchased while protected by DACA, trying to find a country that will welcome the skills they no longer have the opportunity to use in the US. But for a cohort of people who grew up in the US, and who have spent the past half-decade living here with some legitimacy, that's not an easy step to take - if it were, more of them would have taken it rather than live under the uncertainty of DACA to begin with.

Or they can try to return to the shadows - taking the sort of jobs they had before DACA. They can try to transition back to illegality. Whether they can do so without losing the sense of pride and accomplishment, or the sense that they were welcome in America, that DACA gave them isn't something anyone can predict - or that anyone but them can ensure.

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Trump just turned DACA into a ticking time bomb for 800,000 immigrants

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President Donald Trump is ending a program that allowed many unauthorized immigrants to work and live in the US - the most aggressive move of his immigration crackdown so far, and a decision that will ultimately put nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the US as children or young teenagers at risk of deportation.

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The New York Times reveals the harsh action taken by Trump as he declares the ending of the DACA program within six months. Many, such as Obama, Mark Zuckerberg etc, have expressed their discontent with his statement as it strips away opportunities of those brought to the U.S who had no choice of their own. The newspaper questions whether congress will halt his decision, or if Trump will change his mind on his own. This newspaper is credible because the pictures provide sources, such as who and where it was taken.

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transcript

What 'Dreamers' Gained From DACA

About 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. We spoke with a few of them in September, when President Trump announced his intention to end the Obama-era program.

"The politicians are using us like a sport, you know, they're using us like punching bags." "Democrats and Republicans alike have to stand up for us because there are DACA beneficiaries in every state." "I was brought when I was 11" " ... when I was 7, from Brazil." "I was about 10." "I was 12 years old." "I was 7 years old." " ... about 8 years old." "We crossed the border, but we were little." "So I've been here 18 years." "I'm 29 years old." "I am 20." "I am 19 years old." "I've been here for 21 years." "I am 27 years old now." "I am 23 years old and I am originally from Mexico." "When DACA was announced, I remember exactly where I was in 2012. I was at the Museum of American History." "Before DACA I always felt like I was in between two worlds. I was born in Honduras. But if I were to go back to Honduras, it's like I'm foreign to them." "It's a tug of war. When you're undocumented, you're always just aware of the situations, of the locations, who you were talking to, how you are interacting with folks, ensuring that you don't do anything that will bring attention to you because you live a life of shadows." "You know, I have been able to accomplish a lot more than when I was undocumented. To get a social security number, loans from the bank, a better job." "Every time my parents call me after 11 p.m., it's like my heart is racing. When you are an immigrant in this country, you wake up every day with the fear that you could be taken away, right, that your family could be broken up." "I have been preparing my kids of, for, you know, These are the risk[s]. This could happen to your dad and to me." "I just can't imagine, you know, my nieces and nephews being separated from their parents or them going back to a country that they don't know because this is their home. They shouldn't live with that fear that I had to grow up with. That's not a normal life. That's not normal. And I know that like my friends that are U.S. citizens don't go through that. And nobody should go through that." "I'm not leaving my home, and I think if Trump ever wanted to talk to us, if he wanted to talk to these Dreamers he would realize that we love this country. We want to stay here, and ... " " ... if it's taken away, I'm losing my job, I'm losing the opportunity to work and school. People don't understand but it's a big thing, it's a huge thing, it's privileges that some people here take for granted." "Taking DACA away is like taking a family member away from me. That wall that Donald Trump wants to build, you know, it's putting a wall in front of me where I won't be able to move forward. You are not just taking something away from us, but you're taking something away from this country." "This land is not a white America. It's not. This is a land of immigrants." "I mean, I was already a person before DACA. A lot of people say, 'Oh, you know, what's going to happen after DACA?' I'm not going down without a fight." "You know, whatever happens next, I love this country and I belong here." "I'm fighting for my family, "I'm fighting for the friends of mine that can't even stand up because they're scared." "We just want to stay here and contribute to this country, to the economy ... We are good people. We're not criminals."

About 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. We spoke with a few of them in September, when President Trump announced his intention to end the Obama-era program.

WASHINGTON - [Read more on the Supreme Court's decision on President Trump and DACA.]

President Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to the Obama-era program that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling it an "amnesty-first approach" and urging Congress to pass a replacement before he begins phasing out its protections in six months.

As early as March, officials said, some of the 800,000 young adults brought to the United States illegally as children who qualify for the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, will become eligible for deportation. The five-year-old policy allows them to remain without fear of immediate removal from the country and gives them the right to work legally.

Mr. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the change at the Justice Department, both used the aggrieved language of anti-immigrant activists, arguing that those in the country illegally are lawbreakers who hurt native-born Americans by usurping their jobs and pushing down wages.

Mr. Trump said in a statement that he was driven by a concern for "the millions of Americans victimized by this unfair system." Mr. Sessions said the program had "denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs."

Protests broke out in front of the White House and the Justice Department and in cities across the country soon after Mr. Sessions's announcement. Democrats and some Republicans, business executives, college presidents and immigration activists condemned the move as a coldhearted and shortsighted effort that was unfair to the young immigrants and could harm the economy.

"This is a sad day for our country," Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, wrote on his personal page. "It is particularly cruel to offer young people the American dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it."

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President Trump is winding down DACA. But Trump and his administration have at times suggested that this wouldn't happen. Credit Credit... Tom Brenner/The New York Times

Former President Barack Obama, who had warned that any threat to the program would prompt him to speak out, called his successor's decision "wrong," "self-defeating" and "cruel."

"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," Mr. Obama wrote on Facebook.

Both he and Mr. Trump said the onus was now on lawmakers to protect the young immigrants as part of a broader overhaul of the immigration system that would also toughen enforcement.

But despite broad and longstanding bipartisan support for measures to legalize unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, the odds of a sweeping immigration deal in a deeply divided Congress appeared long. Legislation to protect the "dreamers" has also repeatedly died in Congress.

Just hours after the angry reaction to Mr. Trump's decision, the president appeared to have second thoughts. In a late-evening tweet, Mr. Trump specifically called on Congress to "legalize DACA," something his administration's officials had declined to do earlier in the day.

Mr. Trump also warned lawmakers that if they do not legislate a program similar to the one Mr. Obama created through executive authority, he will "revisit this issue!" - a statement sure to inject more uncertainty into the ultimate fate of the young, undocumented immigrants who have been benefiting from the program since 2012.

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Protesters marched from the White House toward Trump International Hotel on Tuesday after the announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was ending. Credit... Alex Wroblewski for The New York Times

Conservatives praised Mr. Trump's move, though some expressed frustration that he had taken so long to rescind the program and that the gradual phaseout could mean that some immigrants retained protection from deportation until October 2019.

The White House portrayed the decision as a matter of legal necessity, given that nine Republican state attorneys general had threatened to sue to halt the program immediately if Mr. Trump did not act.

Months of internal White House debate preceded the move, as did the president's public display of his own conflicted feelings. He once referred to DACA recipients as "incredible kids."

The president's wavering was reflected in a day of conflicting messages from him and his team. Hours after his statement was released, Mr. Trump told reporters that he had "great love" for the beneficiaries of the program he had just ended.

"I have a love for these people, and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly," he said. But he notably did not endorse bipartisan legislation to codify the program's protections, leaving it unclear whether he would back such a solution.

Mr. Trump's aides were negotiating late into Monday evening with one another about precisely how the plan to wind down the program would be executed. Until Tuesday morning, some aides believed the president had settled on a plan that would be more generous, giving more of the program's recipients the option to renew their protections.

But even taking into account Mr. Trump's contradictory language, the rollout of his decision was smoother than his early moves to crack down on immigration, particularly the botched execution in January of his ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

In addition to the public statement from Mr. Sessions and a White House question-and-answer session, the president was ready on Tuesday with the lengthy written statement, and officials at the Justice and Homeland Security Departments provided detailed briefings and distributed information to reporters in advance.

Mr. Trump sought to portray his move as a compassionate effort to head off the expected legal challenge that White House officials said would have forced an immediate and highly disruptive end to the program. But he also denounced the policy, saying it helped spark a "massive surge" of immigrants from Central America, some of whom went on to become members of violent gangs like MS-13. Some immigration critics contend that programs like DACA, started under Mr. Obama, encouraged Central Americans to enter the United States, hoping to stay permanently. Tens of thousands of migrants surged across America's southern border in the summer of 2014, many of them children fleeing dangerous gangs.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, indicated that Mr. Trump would support legislation to "fix" the DACA program, as long as Congress passed it as part of a broader immigration overhaul to strengthen the border, protect American jobs and enhance enforcement.

"The president wants to see responsible immigration reform, and he wants that to be part of it," Ms. Sanders said, referring to a permanent solution for the young immigrants. "Something needs to be done. It's Congress's job to do that. And we want to be part of that process."

Later on Tuesday, Marc Short, Mr. Trump's top legislative official, told reporters on Capitol Hill that the White House would release principles for such a plan in the coming days, input that at least one key member of Congress indicated would be crucial.

Three DACA recipients - Sofia Ruales, left; her sister Erica Ruales; and their cousin Marlon Ruales - listened on Tuesday near Trump Tower in Manhattan to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's announcement. Credit... Todd Heisler/The New York Times

"It is important that the White House clearly outline what kind of legislation the president is willing to sign," Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said in a statement. "We have no time to waste on ideas that do not have the votes to pass or that the president won't sign."

The announcement was an effort by Mr. Trump to honor the law-and-order message of his campaign, which included a repeated pledge to end Mr. Obama's immigration policy, while seeking to avoid the emotionally charged and politically perilous consequences of targeting a sympathetic group of immigrants.

Mr. Trump's decision came less than two weeks after he pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who drew intense criticism for his aggressive pursuit of unauthorized immigrants, which earned him a criminal contempt conviction.

The blame-averse president told a confidante over the past few days that he realized that he had gotten himself into a politically untenable position. As late as one hour before the decision was to be announced, administration officials privately expressed concern that Mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take, and when he discovered their full impact, would change his mind, according to a person familiar with their thinking who was not authorized to comment on it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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The "wind down" of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will affect an estimated 800,000 individuals. Credit Credit... Tom Brenner/The New York Times

But ultimately, the president followed through on his campaign pledge at the urging of Mr. Sessions and other hard-line members inside his White House, including Stephen Miller, his top domestic policy adviser.

The announcement started the clock on revoking legal status from those protected under the program.

Officials said DACA recipients whose legal status expires on or before March 5 would be able to renew their two-year period of legal status as long as they apply by Oct. 5. But the announcement means that if Congress fails to act, immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children could face deportation as early as March 6 to countries where many left at such young ages that they have no memory of them.

Immigration officials said they did not intend to actively target the young immigrants as priorities for deportation, though without the program's protection, they would be considered subject to removal from the United States and would no longer be able to work legally.

Officials said some of the young immigrants could be prevented from returning to the United States if they traveled abroad.

Immigration advocates took little comfort from the administration's assurances, describing the president's decision as deeply disturbing and vowing to shift their demands for protections to Capitol Hill.

Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, called Mr. Trump's decision "nothing short of hypocrisy, cruelty and cowardice." Maria Praeli, a recipient of protection under the program, criticized Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump for talking "about us as if we don't matter and as if this isn't our home."

The Mexican foreign ministry issued a statement saying the "Mexican government deeply regrets" Mr. Trump's decision.

As recently as July, Mr. Trump expressed skepticism about the prospect of a broad legislative deal.

"What I'd like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan," he told reporters. "But our country and political forces are not ready yet."

As for DACA, he said: "There are two sides of a story. It's always tough."

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Trump Moves to End DACA and Calls on Congress to Act (Published 2017)

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WASHINGTON - [Read more on the Supreme Court's decision on President Trump and DACA .] President Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to the Obama-era program that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling it an "amnesty-first approach" and urging Congress to pass a replacement before he begins phasing out its protections in six months.

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In the article of The Hill it goes on to bash the DACA program by portraying it as a reward for bad behavior. They explain how trump will be doing the country justice by repealing Obama's program. The millions of money paid by taxpayers that help fund this organization, is described as unnecessary and feel it should go to more important things, such as schools, hospitals etc. They view this organization as encouraging more "aliens" to enter the U.S. I strongly oppose their accusations because DACA helps those who had no say in what country they want to live in. Also, DACA not only helps this demographic,  but the U.S as whole. These 800,000 people contribute to our stable economy and public services.

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The rule of law is all about deterrence. So when we fail to follow it, we squander its deterring effects. With President Obama's DACA program apparently still up and running (handing out amnesty, work permits, etc.), it's sincerely hoped this most basic of principles hasn't fallen victim to the left's emotional blackmail campaign.

Ending DACA and turning off the amnesty-magnet is now more important than ever.

Obama created DACA in reaction to Congress's "gridlock" over the DREAM Act, an amnesty bill for illegal aliens under 30 rejected no less than 24 times since 2001.

DACA replicated the main elements and criteria of the insipidly titled act, from its sentimental focus on "children" to the requirement that applicants have a GED.

While the DREAM Act granted "legal status" or permanent legalization, DACA purports to offer "legal presence", or "temporary" legalization. The distinction's without a difference. Obama's strategy with the program, to use a phrase from George W. Bush about Israel's West Bank settlements, was to create "facts on the ground" and make it as difficult as possible to reverse course in future.

When you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. Following Obama's DACA announcement, radio and print ads began appearing south of the border selling the services of cartel-controlled "coyotes" to teenaged would-be illegal aliens. In a matter of months, the thousand or so apprehensions of unaccompanied juveniles we'd previously been seeing every year surged into the tens of thousands.

A year later, the surge reached the hundreds of thousands (not including an equal jump in "family units"). Despite Obama's efforts to divert the flood by creating a program to fly alien minors straight from their home countries, the level of illegal entries failed to taper off and it remains at record highs today.

Now, thanks to DACA, taxpayers spend hundreds of millions annually to reunite the ( mostly) uneducated minors with their ( mostly) illegal alien parents in the U.S. That's money that should have gone to support schools, hospitals, and job-training for American youth.

Should the new administration signal that it too is unwilling to enforce our immigration laws fairly, equally, and without an ageist-bent, the flood over our borders will become a torrent.

Take Mexico's poor economic prospects. Average wages in that country are a mere 10 percent of American levels, a gap that's likely set to jump. Why? Mexico's rapidly dwindling Cantarell oil field, traditionally the source of 30 percent of the country's total government expenditures. Once classified as a 'supergiant' alongside Saudi Arabia's Ghawar deposit, the Cantarell field, and the well-paid union jobs it supported, is credited with finally establishing a Mexican middle-class.

But with production declining from 2.5 million to 400,000 barrels per day over the last decade or so, Mexico's biggest GDP-contributor is no longer oil exports, but US-based remittances.

Assuming the economic effects to Mexico of Trump's promised NAFTA readjustments turn out to be banal (some critics say it's actually been a net negative to Mexico's poor), the drawdown of Mexican oil revenues will almost certainly push up its levels of illegal economic migration.

As for the main source countries for "unaccompanied alien minors" - El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras - development economists have all but given up on understanding why they can't even come close to the achievements of neighboring Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. Without shutting off the magnet of amnesty, their mass illegal entries will also stay at flood-levels.

Instead of demanding that the federal government assist these countries with better tailored aid and grants conditioned on rooting out corruption, open-borders activists simply call for more amnesty and more illegal alien "rights." Their lack of systematic analysis is stupefying.

While "protecting" illegal aliens from the consequences of breaking the law may make them feel good and virtuous, if they get their way on DACA the incentives for further law-breaking at our border will only increase. Economists call this the "moral hazard" problem.

Given the economic and social pressures here and across the border, we need to ensure against amnesty and the moral hazard it creates, now more than ever.
Dale Wilcox is executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative and predatory effects of unlawful immigration and ungoverned legal immigration. The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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The rule of law is all about deterrence. So when we fail to follow it, we squander its deterring effects. With President Obama's DACA program apparently still up and running (handing out amnesty, work permits, etc.), it's sincerely hoped this most basic of principles hasn't fallen victim to the left's emotional blackmail campaign.

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Researching this issue broadened by understanding to Trump's motives for wanting to revoke this program, and what congress can do to prevent it. Outside conversations also played a big role in my understanding, as I was able to hear the opinions of others. For the most part, many disagreed with Trump's stance and my peers made it clear that it was cruel and unfair. For example, in the group activity of 4 that we did in class, all 4 agreed that it is useless to revoke DACA as Congress will not be willing to it get rid of it anytime soon. These sources have enabled me to feel stronger on my stance against Trump as I am more informed and can determine his motives are acute compared to the damage he will be doing to thousands of people.

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CNN discusses the flaws within Trump's plan of ending the immigration program, DACA, and how he faces the obstacle of congress pending his request. They also mention the effects it would have on our economy, as DACA allows for these young adults to pay taxes, work, and contribute to our GDP. I found this source very credible because they questioned Trump's action with Jeh Johnson. He makes this interview credible due to his job as a U.S. Secy. of Homeland Security and has an accurate insight to how our government works internally.

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The Department of Homeland Security will stop processing any new applications for the program as of Tuesday and has formally rescinded the Obama administration policy.

"I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday at a Justice Department news conference.

But the agency also announced a plan to continue renewing permits for anyone whose status expires in the next six months, giving Congress time to act before any currently protected individuals lose their ability to work, study and live without fear in the US.

In the five years since DACA was enacted, the nearly 800,000 individuals who have received the protections have started families, pursued careers and studied in schools and universities across the United States. The business community and education community at large has joined Democrats and many moderate Republicans in supporting the program, citing the contributions to society from the population and the sympathetic fact that many Dreamers have never known another home than the US.

The Trump administration pitched the move as the "least disruptive" option available after facing a threat from 10 conservative state attorneys general to challenge the program in court, according to senior administration officials briefing reporters on the move.

Sessions had determined that the program would not be likely to withstand that court challenge, the administration said.

The move sets a clock for Congress to act to preserve the program's protections before the DACA recipients begin losing their status March 5, 2018.

No one's DACA status will be revoked before it expires, administration officials said, and any applications already received by Tuesday will be processed.

Anyone who's status expires by March 5 has one month to apply for a new two-year permit, and those applications will be processed.

If Congress were not to act, and DACA begins to expire, nearly 300,000 people could begin to lose their status in 2018, and more than 320,000 would lose their status from January to August 2019. More than 200,000 recipients have their DACA expiring in the window that DHS will allow renewal.

Deportations?

Speaking with reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity, DHS did not rule out that anyone with expired DACA would then be subject to deportation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they will continue to prioritize for enforcement people with criminal records, people who re-enter the US illegally and those with final orders of removal.

But officials said there will be no formal guidance that former DACA recipients are not eligible for deportation, and ICE officers in the field who encounter them will be making a case-by-case judgment as to whether to arrest that individual and process them for deportation.

The administration insisted its approach was designed to offer some security to DACA recipients, emphasizing that if it had allowed the courts to decide the issue, then would have been risking an immediate and abrupt end to DACA at the hands of a judge.

But it also was made clear that once DACA begins to expire, if Congress doesn't act, then people formerly protected "would be like any other person who's in the country illegally," according to a senior DHS official.

All of the information provided to the government by DACA applicants will remain in the DHS system. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program, will give that information to ICE if requested if "there's a significant law enforcement or national security interest," an official said.

While they won't be specifically targeted, DHS said, they could be arrested and deported if they are encountered by ICE officers. And their information, which they provided extensively for their DACA applications, will continue to reside in DHS systems and could be accessed if officers feel it's necessary in the course of an investigation.

DHS said it had on plans to issue formal guidelines on how former DACA recipients -- or their information -- will be treated beyond the current operating procedures of DHS.

"To be clear, what ICE is doing now is what Congress intended, we're actually enforcing the law the way it is written," said a senior ICE official. "(This is t)he first President who's asked us to enforce the law the way it is written and not asked us to have some executive interpretation of the law."

The officials placed the onus on Congress to make any changes to the system.

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but gives congress window to save it - cnnpolitics

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Trump ends DACA, but gives Congress window to save it

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The Department of Homeland Security will stop processing any new applications for the program as of Tuesday and has formally rescinded the Obama administration policy. "I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday at a Justice Department news conference.