President Donald Trump is expected to decide to end an Obama-era program for children who came to the United States illegally known as DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but will grant Congress up to six months to find an alternative policy, CNN reported. The program that protects nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants allows them to two-year stay.
Reactions
The reports drew a backlash from both sides of the aisle, while Trump' supporters praised the move as a 'great start.'
'Great start! but ending #DACA becomes meaningless if it's part of a deal for amnesty or immigration increase,' Richard Spencer, Alt-right founder, and white nationalist tweeted.
'DACA is unconstitutional. American citizens should be 1st.' Trump supporter Pastor Mark Burns also commented on Twitter.
While some of who want DACA to remain reacted angrily describing the intentions to end the program as one of the 'ugliest and cruelest decisions ever made by a president in the modern history.' Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted. Former secretary of State and Trump's rival in the 2016 elections Hillary Clinton said that there is 'no time to waste. We've got to fight with everything, we've got to #DefendDACA.' House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a radio interview Friday that he doesn't think that Trump should do that and he believes that this is something 'Congress has to fix.'
So what is DACA exactly?
DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an Obama-era program created in June 2012 and aimed to allow children who entered the United States illegally to live temporarily, study and work legally in the country.
These children are also known as DREAMer, named after the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), a legislation meant to grant these children a path to citizenship first introduced on August 1, 2001, by US Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) but has failed to pass, Vox explained.
Then former President Barack Obama founded DACA to grant them two-year protection from deportation and permission in the US legally and pay $500 to renew it every two years.
To be able to apply for DACA, Immigrants have to have come to the United States before 2007 and have been 16 years old or younger when they arrived and younger than 31 years old when DACA created in 2012, have to be completed high school or GED, and have a clean criminal record.
