Donald Trump to end DACA: All you need to know about the US immigration programme and 'Dreamers'

The calls began in the hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office. The president-elect was attending a morning prayer service and many in the party were celebrating a long-awaited return to power. But the incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus was in a van, parked outside St John’s Episcopal Church, fielding phone calls from anxious Republicans all asking the same question: What was the new president going to do about DACA?

The Inauguration Day worries about Trump’s campaign promise to “immediately terminate” the programme that protects some young immigrants from deportation would soon turn into a quiet lobbying push from powerful Trump advisers, public pressure from business groups, a deadline from Republican state officials and a tug-of-war within the West Wing. After months of wrestling with a decision, Trump on Tuesday declared he would slowly unwind the programme – while he hoped Congress would do “something”.

He declared on Tuesday that he loves the “Dreamers” who could face deportation but insisted it’s up to Congress, not him, to address their plight.

Trump didn’t specify what he wanted to be done, essentially sending a six-month time bomb to his fellow Republicans in Congress who have no consensus on how to defuse it.

On Twitter Tuesday night, he wrote:

Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2017

The president tried to have it both ways with his compromise plan: fulfilling his campaign promise to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, or DACA, while at the same time showing compassion for those who would lose deportation protection and the ability to work legally in the US. New applications will be rejected and the programme will be formally rescinded, but the administration will continue to renew existing two-year work permits for the next six months, giving Congress time to act.

“I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly,” Trump told reporters. Yet at the same time, the White House distributed talking points to members of Congress that included a dark warning: “The Department of Homeland Security urges DACA recipients to use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States.”

Although Trump’s announcement had been anticipated in recent days, it still left young people covered by the DACA programme reeling. “You just feel like you are empty,” said a sobbing Paola Martinez, 23, who came to the US from Colombia and recently graduated with a civil engineering degree from Florida International University Their predicament now shifts to Congress, which has repeatedly tried – and failed – to pass immigration legislation.

What is the ‘Dreamers’ programme?

In a presidential order in June 2012, President Barack Obama launched DACA that aimed to provide a stable future for people who arrived in the country illegally as children and stayed. Dubbed “Dreamers”, they were granted under the presidential order the right to remain and study or work legally, renewing their status regularly.

The programme was devised after Congress failed to pass legislation to address the status of millions of illegal immigrants who had lived in the country for decades, many with families, permanent homes and businesses.

DACA applied to people who were under the age of 31 as of 15 June, 2012, and had been continually present in the United States since 2007. It covered anyone in school or who had a graduate certificate, who was serving in the armed forces, and who had never been convicted of a serious crime.

Why end DACA?

But Trump argued that DACA protected people who broke US laws and was unfair to legal immigrants. He said that it encroached on Congress’s power to make immigration laws.

The government also argued that legal challenges by a number of states made DACA and a 2014 sister programme, DAPA, untenable.

DAPA was a proposed Obama programme to open the way for other illegal immigrants, those who came as adults, to gain legal status, but was blocked from implementation by legal challenges. Recently Texas led other states in a threatened action to similarly seek to block DACA.

Faced with legal challenges, the Trump administration said it falls to Congress to fix the problem, not the executive branch.

But legal experts say Obama’s DACA order was constitutionally sound and would survive court challenges. “The least disruptive alternative would have been to let the DACA programme continue,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr of Cornell University.

What happens to the Dreamers?

Encouraged by Obama’s move, about 800,000 people registered under DACA, confident that they would be safe from expulsion. Now the government has access to all their personal data, making it hard for most to hide.

About 200,000 of them will see their resident permits expire by the end of 2017. Another 275,000 expire in 2018, and the rest between January and August 2019.

Under Trump’s order, those with permits are safe until their expiry. People with permits that expire within the next six months – before 5 March, 2018 – can apply to renew them before 5 October. But new applications will not be accepted.

Once their DACA permits expire, individuals will not have the legal right to work, and theoretically, could be deported any time – though the current policy only threatens illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

The White House has indicated that the six month grace period gives Congress an opportunity, if it wants, to come up with legislation that could replace DACA and strengthen its legal foundations.

Nearly 8,000 Indians to face deportation

According to a Hindustan Times report, out of an estimated 7,87,000 people granted protection from deportation under DACA, 7,881 came from India, according to the latest data published by the regulating agency, the US Customs and Immigration Services.

Also, an additional 14,000 undocumented immigrants from India were among the 1.9 million people eligible for DACA, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which tracks and studies immigration in the US. India has also emerged as a top country of origin for legal immigrants.

Whereas, Times of India claims that the number of such people from India, could be more than 20,000, according to an estimate carried out by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).

“Over 27,000 Asian Americans, including 5,500 Indians and Pakistanis, have already received DACA. An additional estimated 17,000 individuals from India and 6,000 Pakistan respectively are eligible for DACA, placing India in the top ten countries for DACA eligibility,” SAALT said.

With inputs from AP and AFP