Thread: Breaking: Trump to Keep Protections on DREAMERS

Trump Faces Difficult Choice on DACA

February 21, 2017


During his 77-minute, free-wheeling news conference on Thursday, President Trump said something interesting on the subject of immigration enforcement that easily got lost in the outrage over the obsession about "fake news." Perhaps the immigration hardliner is starting to become more pragmatic, at least on immigration.




Asked by reporters about what he plans to do with his predecessor's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Trump gave an entirely conflicted response. In effect, he hasn't made a decision about the policy one way or the other because it's such a consequential one to make.



"This is a very, very difficult for me, one of the most difficult subjects," he said. "You have these incredible kids," who came into the United States with their parents at a young age and who would be removed from the country if DACA were abolished.




Yet keeping the program intact would likely be greeted by immigration hardliners on Capitol Hill, pro-immigration enforcement groups that supported Trump throughout his campaign, and millions of his voters as a betrayal of what they thought they were getting from the no-nonsense Trump: someone who would bring law and order back to the U.S. regardless of how negative the politics or how much of a killing he would take in the press.




The last thing Trump wants to be pejoratively referred to is as a typical, spineless, duplicitous politician, the very people in the political establishment he successfully campaigned against.




On DACA, Trump is indeed presented with an enormously complicated choice. Any decision he signs off on will be fodder for the political pundits and the news media that he despises with such animosity. Either let the roughly 750,000 young people who are enrolled in the program to continue working and studying in the U.S. without worrying about deportation, or terminate the prosecutorial discretion embodied in the policy and remove them.




He ought to take the first choice, not only for the obvious moral and compassionate reasons, but for practical reasons as well. The vast majority of these kids and young adults are contributing to our economy. It would also allow federal law enforcement to free up resources that would be more wisely levied against criminals who are much higher priorities.




On its face, DACA is an act of pragmatism just as it's an act of compassion. Many of the "Dreamers" have known no other upbringing, no other culture, and no environment other than the U.S. Some were already working low-paying jobs and being paid under the table by their employers for fear of attracting the government's attention.




Yes, they crossed the border illegally, but they weren't doing so of their own volition. When you're a kid, you don't get much influence over family decisions. When your parents move, you follow along. Dreamers are, in effect, Americans like the rest of us, just without the papers to prove it.


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tr...rticle/2615345

More info @

Trump says he will treat Dreamers 'with heart'

CBS: Trump to keep DACA in new immigration policy?



POSTED AT 8:41 AM ON FEBRUARY 21, 2017

BY ED MORRISSEY



It depends on how one defines “keep.” Donald Trump argued against Barack Obama’s unilateral actions on immigration, including the DAPA and expanded DACA programs, both of which got put into limbo by federal courts. When asked in last week’s press conference about DACA and the so-called “dreamers” — children brought into the country illegally by their parents — Trump replied that his immigration policy would show “great heart” in those cases. Today, CBS reports that Trump’s new immigration policy keeps DACA in place.


Or perhaps better put, it doesn’t explicitly eliminate it:

A source with knowledge of DHS planning said the documents are being finalized by the White House and could be released as early as Monday. It was originally scheduled to be released late last week.
One provision would direct the immediate return of Mexican immigrants who are apprehended along the border back home, pending the outcomes of their deportation hearings. The new procedures would allow for authorities to seek expedited deportation hearings.


The memos do not overturn the Obama 2012 immigration action that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA has deferred deportations for people who came to the U.S. illegally as children and has provided work permits to more than 750,000 immigrants.


The plan also attempts to deter the arrival of unaccompanied children who have come over the border to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America over the last three years. Under the new policies, their parents could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid smugglers to bring the children across the border.

Before we get to DACA, CBS notes that the Trump administration plans a tougher crackdown on illegal immigrants in ICE raids. Under Obama, ICE targeted only the worst cases where suspected gang leaders had entered illegally. The new policy will get much tougher:

The new procedures would allow authorities to seek expedited deportation proceedings, currently limited to undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for two weeks or less, to anyone who has been in the country for up to two years.


Another new provision would be to immediately return Mexican immigrants who are apprehended at the border back home pending the outcomes of their deportation hearings, rather than house them on U.S. property, an effort that would save detention space and other resources.


The guidelines also aim to deter the arrival of a growing wave of 155,000 unaccompanied minors who have come from Mexico and Central America over the past three years. Under the new policies, their parents in the United States could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid smugglers to bring the children across the border.

The new rules also expand the targets for deportation from just the worst offenders — the Obama policy — to any illegal immigrant who has broken other laws while in the US. That policy has already gone into effect, as seen from news reports over the past two weeks, and is patterned after the “broken windows” method of law enforcement used by Rudy Giuliani in New York City.


As for DACA, Trump’s order does not eliminate it. However, the LA Times’ Brian Bennett and Michael Memoli reported last week that Trump has a way to end it without getting his fingerprints on the axe:

But senior Trump aides are holding fast to their goal of strengthening immigration enforcement, the president’s chief campaign promise. They have examined at least two options that would not directly involve Trump, according to two immigration policy advisors to the White House: a lawsuit brought by states, and new legal guidance that details who is a priority for deportation.


Under that option, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a vocal critic of deportation relief as a senator, would direct Department of Justice lawyers to review the program, which issues two-year work permits to people who qualify and keeps them from being categorized as deportation priorities.


If the Justice Department determines that DACA is not legal or is no longer a responsible use of prosecutorial discretion, the Department of Homeland Security would be instructed to stop awarding and renewing work permits.


Another possible path involves the courts. A handful of governors are considering a challenge patterned on the 2014 lawsuit filed by several conservative state officials against the Obama administration’s expansion of deportation protections. If they sue, Sessions could instruct his lawyers not to defend the program in court, exposing it to indefinite suspension by a federal judge.

It could be even simpler than either of those two options, thanks to the precedent set by the Obama administration:

Deportation relief could also be ended “the same way it was begun,” said Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and the architect of multiple state and local laws aimed at immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly could simply instruct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop issuing work permits, much as Obama’s first secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, created DACA with a memo in 2012.

If Trump really doesn’t want to end DACA, then none of these will ever come into play. If Trump wants DACA ended but without his fingerprints on the axe, then the only real option is to get states to sue in federal court. That’s tricky, too, because a Sessions decision not to defend the program will look as though Trump at least implicitly endorses that approach — and it might not be enough to get a favorable ruling. Other states and outside organizations would flood the court with amicus briefs, and a judge might wonder why the administration chose to default rather than just use the authority they already have on their own to end the program.


One other possibility exists, too. Not long ago, the Trump administration was reported to favor a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform package that would finally resolve all issues. If they want to drive Democrats into a bargain, they might use DACA as leverage, which means that they’d need to keep it alive for a little while longer. After four years of Democratic lectures about the “dreamers,” it might be the biggest chip the White House has to get the kind of deal they want. Since they can cancel the program at any time, there’s not much risk in letting it operate for a while longer to see how much that leverage buys them.




http://hotair.com/archives/2017/02/2...ration-policy/

Related:


The White House has found ways to end protection for Dreamers while shielding Trump from blowback

https://www.alipac.us/f9/white-house...-trump-343731/

Trump Wrestles with Obama’s Amnesty for DREAMers


Posted By Jim Stinson On February 21, 2017




President Donald Trump is walking a fine line between fulfilling key campaign promises and confronting the optics of deporting children.



At his first solo press conference Thursday, the president displayed serious hesitation with the prospect of deporting the children of illegal immigrants — despite a repeated, iron-clad campaign pledge to end President Obama’s executive amnesties.



Immigration today, if you listen to the Left, equals anybody who wants to come into the country should be allowed. That’s not what immigration is. That’s illegal immigration.



Trump also realizes the danger of letting down some of his most vocal supporters and immigration hawks, the people who swept him into office and helped him win two Rust Belt states not won by a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.




The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump’s aides are working on plans to end a controversial amnesty program for illegal immigrants, brought here as children, without getting the same backlash as Trump’s controversial “travel ban.”




Trump is aware his supporters are impatient to see the two Obama-era amnesties ended. Trump was asked about his next immigration plans at Thursday’s conference. The reporter added she was curious about any coming actions on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an executive order imposed by Obama in June 2012.




The program allows illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a two-year period of deferred action from deportation, as well as eligibility for a work permit. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, recipients of this DACA amnesty have to be under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, and had to have come to the United States before reaching his or her 16th birthday. There are a number of other guidelines for these recipients, known popularly as “Dreamers.”




The potentially heavy political cost of deporting illegal immigrants who grew up in the United States through no fault of their own appears to weigh heavily on Trump.




“We’re going to show great heart,” Trump told reporters. “DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me, I will tell you. To me, it’s one of the most difficult subjects I have because you have these incredible kids.




In many cases, not in all cases. And some of the cases, having DACA and they’re gang members and they’re drug dealers too. But you have some absolutely, incredible kids, I would say mostly. They were brought here in such a way — it’s a very — it’s a very, very tough subject.”




While Trump is seen as having rushed through too soon a draft of an executive order on accepting refugees and visitors from seven troubled nations in Africa and the Middle East, he is showing mysterious caution on Obama’s two executive amnesties. (A second program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents — or DAPA — has been frozen in court for almost two years, after states sued to block the order.)




The delay in repealing DACA and DAPA has caught the attention of some of Trump’s top supporters, people who have been waiting for decades for a president who wanted to crack down on illegal immigration.




On Jan. 23, only days after Trump was sworn in, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies wrote in a blog post that he was curious as to why Trump had not simply waved his pen, and revoked the DACA and DAPA programs, which are opposed by immigration watchdogs.



“I did not expect was for Trump to break an explicit promise regarding his headline issue on the administration’s first business day in office,” Krikorian wrote. “But that may be what’s happened.”




It’s now clear Trump’s White House are nervous about appearing heartless.




“We’re gonna deal with DACA with heart,” Trump told reporters. “But the DACA situation is a very, very — it’s a very difficult thing for me because you know, I love these kids, I love kids, I have kids and grandkids . . . But we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways, more. But we’re tailoring it now to the decision, we have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it.”




Krikorian noted that Trump was explicit in denouncing Trump’s amnesties on the 2016 campaign trail.




“We will immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties, in which he defied federal law and the constitution to give amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants,” Trump said in Phoenix last year.




Trump’s aides have drafted the order to repeal DACA, but it remains idle on the Oval Office desk, according to the Los Angeles Times. The other options to kill DACA, without involving Trump, would be a lawsuit brought by states, or new legal guidance that details who is a priority for deportation, according to the Times.




Since DACA took effect, there are about 750,000 people who got work permits through DACA. About 800 people are signing up for every day, according to Krikorian.




Meanwhile, Trump’s top supporters are still talking about the issue of illegal immigration, more than four weeks after he took office, indicating the still-red-hot nature of the issue.





“We’ve even lost the definition of ‘immigration,”’ said Rush Limbaugh, speaking to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. “Immigration today, if you listen to the Left, equals anybody who wants to come into the country should be allowed. That’s not what immigration is. That’s illegal immigration. And we ought to all oppose it.”






URL to article: https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/...-for-dreamers/

Poll: Should ALIPAC Call for Full Deportation & immediate end of DACA?

Read Memos:


https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/fi...l-Interest.pdf

https://assets.documentcloud.org/doc...y-Kelly-on.pdf

Trump’s Immigration Guidance: Dreamers and Parents of U.S. Citizens Are Safe for Now; Most Others Must Go


February 21, 2017


(CNSNews.com) - Homeland Security Secretary Gen. John Kelly on Tuesday released two memoranda, explaining how the Trump administration plans to implement the president's executive orders designed to “stem illegal immigration” and remove illegal aliens “who have no lawful basis to enter or remain in the United States.”


Notably, the new guidance exempts, for the time being, the 750,000 “dreamers” who came to this country as children and who received temporary legal status under President Obama Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.


In fact, Kelly rescinded all previous immigration directives and guidance -- except for Obama's 2012 DACA guidance dealing with individuals who came to the U.S. as children; and the 2014 memo dealing with certain individuals who are the parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.


The first memo [1] implements President Trump’s executive order on "Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements."


In this document, Secretary Kelly directs the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency to “immediately being the process of hiring 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents” as well as 500 Air & Marine Agents/Officers. (The second memo directs Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “expeditiously” hire 10,000 officers and agents.)


In another manpower boost, DHS is expanding the 287(g) program. This program allows DHS to authorize qualified law enforcement officers to “perform the functions of an immigration officer” when encountering illegal aliens. (The memo notes that from January 2006 through September 2015, the 287(g) Program led to the identification of more than 402,000 removable aliens, primarily through encounters at local jails.)


The policy memo also:


-- Commissions an “immediate, comprehensive” study of border security.


-- Directs CBP and other relevant agencies to “immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads, along the land border with Mexico in accordance with existing law,” and “in the most appropriate locations.” (The memo says the wall construction must use “materials originating in the United States to the maximum extent permitted by law.”)


-- Expands expedited removal of aliens apprehended at the border, who have been ordered removed from the United States.


-- Orders the detention of aliens apprehended at the border, pending their removal hearings. “Accordingly, the Director of ICE and the Commissioner of CBP should take all necessary action and allocate all available resources to expand their detention capabilities and capacities at or near the border with Mexico to the greatest extent practicable.”


-- Requires immigration and border agencies to develop “uniform written guidance and training for all employees and contractors” that process unaccompanied alien children, including the timely and fair adjudication of their claims, and – if appropriate -- their safe repatriation at the conclusion of removal proceedings.


-- Prioritizes criminal prosecutions for organized criminal activity in the border region.


-- Requires transparent, public reporting of border apprehensions data, including: the number of convicted criminals and the nature of their offenses; the prevalence of gang members and prior immigration violators; the custody status of aliens and, if released, the reason for release and location of that release; and the number of aliens ordered removed and those aliens physically removed.


The second memo [2] deals with "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.”


DHS personnel are directed to prioritize removable aliens who: (1) have been convicted of any criminal offense; (2) have been charged with any criminal offense that has not been resolved; (3) have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense; ( 4) have engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter before a governmental agency; (5) have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits; (6) are subject to a final order of removal but have not complied with their legal obligation to depart the United States; or (7) in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security.”


Noting that “criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents,” DHS is establishing a “Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office within ICE, to provide crime victims’ families “information about the offender, including the offender's immigration status and custody status.”


This memorandum also sets up programs to collect civil fines and penalties “from aliens and from those who facilitate their unlawful presence in the United States.”


And DHS “will no longer afford Privacy Act rights and protections to persons who are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...s-are-safe-now

Keep your promise, Mr. President, end DACA now!

Ultimately this will end up to be double or triple or even more than triple 750,000. Supposed "DACA" people will come out of the woodwork with huge numbers of them having "faked" documents saying they were brought here by their parents.
(Similar to the 11 million people here illegally. That 11 million number has been espoused throughout the Obama and Bush administrations. Ha. More like 30 million now.)