DHS Kelly says he’s not deporting Dreamers, suggests Congress grant full legalization
DHS Secretary Kelly says he’s not deporting Dreamers, suggests Congress grant full legalization
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said Wednesday that his agents are not actively trying to deport illegal immigrant Dreamers approved for tentative status President Obama’s 2012 deportation amnesty, and suggested Congress should find a way to grant them full legalization.
Mr. Kelly declined to take a position on whether the program is legal, saying only that he’s heard from both sides of the debate over the amnesty program, known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
“We are not, not, not targeting DACA registrants right now,” Mr. Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee.
He went on to say he gets “beat up a lot” by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill who say he should leave Dreamers alone. He said it’s up to them to pass a more permanent solution.
“I am hoping frankly because there is bipartisan support … for doing something about DACA legally, legislatively,” Mr. Kelly said.
Under the 2012 amnesty illegal immigrants could gain tentative legal status if they came to the U.S. as children, were in the country by 2007, were 30 or younger as of 2012 and have pursued their high school diploma. DACA recipients were granted work permits entitling them to Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and other taxpayer benefits.
More than 760,000 people had been approved under the program by the end of 2016, and Mr. Kelly’s department is continuing to process new applications and renewals, which must be submitted every two years.
Many Republicans have argued the program is an illegal use of executive power. Mr. Obama himself repeatedly said he didn’t have this kind of authority — until he made an election-year reversal in June 2012, suddenly discovering he did in fact have powers to grant a get-out-of-jail-free card to an entire category of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Obama tried to expand the program to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants in 2014 and to change the registration dates, but federal courts have blocked that expansion. They have not overturned the original DACA program, however.
Dreamers have long been the most sympathetic cases in the immigration debate, having in most cases been brought to the U.S. by parents with no say in the decision. Some have been here since they were babies or toddlers, and don’t have any ties to their countries of citizenship.
Immigrant-rights advocates say they fear the Trump administration is targeting Dreamers for deportation, pointing to several high-profile cases including one out of Washington State where immigration authorities say the young man has gang ties that make him ineligible, and another case in Georgia where a young woman is fighting deportation.
In that case, the woman was approved for the program by the Obama administration even though she had a conviction for lying to a police officer on her record. The Trump administration says that conviction makes her ineligible under the terms of the program, so she is a target for removal.
Mr. Kelly said Dreamers who are being deported either have violated the terms of DACA or else had been eligible but never applied or let their applications lapse, making them subject to deportation.
“When they came into our hands they’re not DACA and we put them into proceedings,” the secretary said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-deporting-dr/
