Trump faces mounting pressure to ax DACA program for illegal immigrant youth

Aug 25, 2017, 11:33 AM



President Trump is weighing whether to terminate an Obama-era directive that grants a reprieve to thousands of young illegal immigrants each year, ahead of a deadline set by a 10-state coalition that plans to sue the administration if the program remains in place.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which currently protects nearly 800,000 unauthorized immigrants from deportation, has been a headache for Trump since the beginning of his presidency. The president has spent months vacillating between his unforgiving stance on illegal immigration and a compassionate approach toward so-called Dreamers, despite promising to undo all of Barack Obama's immigration-related executive actions during the 2016 campaign.

Two sources close to the White House said Trump is under tremendous pressure from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to cancel the program, which Sessions has criticized for venturing onto shaky constitutional ground. Nearly a dozen states penned a letter to the former Alabama senator earlier this summer, urging him to work with the president and Department of Homeland Security to suspend enrollment in DACA and gradually wind it down.

The June 29 letter, written by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said the states would drop their lawsuit against the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, originally filed against the Obama administration if Trump stops affording temporary legal status to illegal immigrant youth. But if he chooses to preserve DACA, Paxton said the lawsuit will be amended on Sept. 5 to challenge both programs.

"DACA is putting [Trump] in an incredibly tough position," one source close to the White House told the Washington Examiner. "On the one hand, his aggressive rhetoric on immigration helped him win the presidency. So he risks pissing off a good portion of his base if he doesn't ax this program."

"On the other hand, imagine the public-relations nightmare the White House will face if he does [end DACA] and 25-year-olds who've lived in the U.S. since they were four are suddenly being rounded up and deported," the source said.

Trump's response to renewed questions about DACA suggests he could work with Congress to craft an immigration bill that would slowly put an end to the program while creating a pathway to permanent legal status or citizenship for those who are currently shielded by it.

"We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud," the president told Time earlier this year.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, recently expressed an interest in that approach, telling Politico on Wednesday that "Congress needs to address this, and I'm eager to do that. That's how I think it should be resolved." Cornyn said he opposed Obama's unilateral action to enact the program in 2012.

A DHS spokesperson confirmed Friday that agency officials held meetings this week to discuss the future of DACA but would not comment on whether the department will make a formal recommendation to Trump between now and Sept. 5.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the program "continues to be under review" by the president and his team.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tr...rticle/2632563