Immigration Hawks Cheer Reported End of Obama Executive Amnesty
Hard-liners applaud news Trump will cut DACA but warn White House to proceed with caution
by Brendan Kirby | Updated 01 Sep 2017 at 6:54 AM
Immigration hawks Thursday cheered reports that President Donald Trump is poised to phase out his predecessor’s executive amnesty program, while cautioning him not to give too much away in any potential negotiations with Congress.
Fox News Channel reported that Trump is expected to announce as early as Friday that he will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The cable channel quoted an unnamed senior administration official indicating that the president would not pull the plug outright but instead wait for DACA permits to expire.
“It seems like it would take the form I always expected, that they’d stop doing renewals,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Krikorian and others long have contended that former President Barack Obama acted illegally when he issued an executive order in 2012 protecting illegal immigrants brought to America as children. The program allows them to apply for work permits and exempts them from deportation as long as they do not commit crimes or violate other conditions.
Through the end of March, the government had issued DACA permits to 787,580 people.
Trump promised during last year's election to end DACA, but after he took office, he left the program in place and continued to grant new permits. But Texas and nine other states threatened legal action if the administration did not end the program by Sept. 5.
Reporters on Thursday tried and failed several times to get White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to confirm the decision.
"A final decision on that has not been made," she said.
Asked if DACA recipients should be worried, she said, "This is under review. There are a lot of components that need to be looked at, and once a decision has been made, we'll let you know."
Several members of Congress have proposed eliminating the ambiguity over DACA by codifying it in law. The White House has mulled the idea of agreeing to that in exchange for something else, such as funding for Trump's planned wall along the southwest border.
Krikorian long has advocated for a deal, but he stressed that Trump should hold out for something far more substantial than a one-year down payment on the wall.
"That would be a disaster if it's just funding for the border wall," he said. "That would be a coup for [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer … The president would have to write a sequel to 'The Art of the Deal': 'The Art of the Choke' or something."
Krikorian said it might be worthwhile partway to passage of the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, which would cut legal immigration and prioritize those with skills and education. He said it might be worth it even for part of the RAISE Act, such as ending "chain migration" of extended relatives of newcomers.
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, agreed.
"The border wall is only one very, very small part of a comprehensive approach to illegal immigration," he said. "There have to be some demonstrable results before anything happens."
Mehlman noted that an estimated 40 percent of illegal immigrants do not even cross the border illegally. Instead, they arrive legally and then stay unlawfully when their visas expire.
Trump's foot-dragging on DACA prompted the Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee to retroactively rescind its endorsement of him. The group has lobbied hard for DACA to be eliminated and for former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio to be pardoned.
"It is very unfortunate that these things did not happen in the first days of the Trump presidency, as was expected and as was promised," said William Gheen, the group's president.
Gheen said there is no need to make any deal. He said strict interior enforcement of current laws would deter future immigration even without new border-security measures.
"Every day DACA continues or illegal immigrants receive preferential treatment is one more day that the votes, elections and rights of Americans are imperiled," he said. "There should be no compromise because America already is heavily compromised … People are coming across because America has no immigration credibility."
Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies, said it is important to know when Trump plans to stop renewing DACA permits. Immediately? At the start of the fiscal year, on Oct. 1? At the end of the calendar year?
"That's a pretty important question," he said, "because it will influence Congress' reaction."
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