Trump orders end to program protecting ‘dreamers’

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday began dismantling former president Barack Obama’s program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, declaring he loves the “dreamers” who could face deportation but insisting it’s up to Congress, not him, to address their plight.

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

The president tried to have it both ways with his compromise plan: fulfilling his campaign promise to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, while at the same time showing compassion for those who would lose deportation protection and the ability to work legally in the U.S.

New applications will be rejected and the program will be formally rescinded, but the administration will continue to renew existing two-year work permits for the next six months, giving Congress time to act.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 said.

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.”

Trump’s announcement left young people covered by the DACA program reeling.

“You just feel like you are empty,” said a sobbing Paola Martinez, 23, who came to the U.S. from Colombia and recently graduated with a civil engineering degree from Florida International University.

“I honestly can’t even process it right now,” said Karen Marin, an immigrant from Mexico, who was in a physics class at Bronx Community College when the news broke. “I’m still trying to get myself together.”

Their predicament now shifts to Congress, which has repeatedly tried — and failed — to pass immigration legislation.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president would look to Congress to pass a “responsible immigration reform package” with money to control the border with Mexico and better protect American workers’ jobs — along with protecting “dreamers.”