President Trump's announcement on Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has caused outrage across the nation, but could likely have been worse if the administration had not added a six-month congressional review. CNN reportedly obtained talking points on Wednesday that were sent to Congress by the White House, which provides a much starker reality of what the administrations want.

Homeland Security enforcing authority against DREAMers

The CNN report titled: "Admin memo: DACA recipients should prepare for 'departure from the United States,'" referred to a background document which is also referred to as the DACA talking points memo, which contained a series of bullet points.

One of those bullet points said that DACA participants should start preparing to leave the country. Certainly, such a statement would negate the administration's public stance of giving Congress 6 months.

More specifically, the bullet point referred to stated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urges DACA recipients to prepare for their departure from the U.S. It also suggests that those recipients apply for other immigration programs for which they might qualify for. The document also marked September 5, the date that Trump's attorney general Jeff Sessions announced that the program would be rescinded, as the last date to accept initial grants for the program. After that date, all initial grants would be rejected.

Trump administration restricting path to citizenship

As for signing up for other programs, the administration has already been tightening access to citizenship. One of these programs is the ability to obtain green cards which now require face-to-face interviews, which will only make the process longer. The clear intention here is to slow down the vetting process, to exhaust it and extend the wait times.

A DHS spokesman named David Lapan also put out a more authoritative statement saying that "no one has an entitlement to live in the United States illegally."

Temporary Protected Status and hurricane disaster

However, there is some effort to buy Congress some more time by honoring renewals for two-year permits that are set to expire on March 5 over the next month.

The CNN article, however, referred to DHS using similar authoritative language for ending another program called Temporary Protected Status. Under that program, Haitians, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Sudanese, and those from El Salvador whose countries were under TPS status can extend their stay.

In the case with Haitians, they were granted a six-month extension in May from the original 18-months after an earthquake devastated Haiti. As of this writing, there are still no reports about the DHS' intentions against the TPS program, but with reports that Hurricane Irma has hit the Caribbean, TPS status would have to continue.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED