US judge blocks Trump move to terminate DACA programme

‘DREAMERS’ PROTECTED Admin said in 2017 it would rescind scheme to shield youngsters brought illegally to US

WASHINGTON : A US federal court has barred the Donald Trump administration from discontinuing a regulation protecting people brought to the US illegally as children after the government announced it would scrap the programme in September.

Judge William Alsup in a San Francisco district court ruled on Tuesday to continue the programme. “We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the chief executive (Trump), publicly favours the very programme the agency has ended,” he wrote. “For the reasons DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was instituted and for the reasons tweeted by President Trump, this order finds that the public interest will be served by DACA’S continuation.”

The White House reacted with anger on Wednesday, saying in a statement: “We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the president’s successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day. An issue of this magnitude must go through the normal legislative process.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump and congressional leaders reached an “agreement to negotiate” a wide-ranging immigrations legislation covering border security, chain migration, visa lottery, and the status of people covered by DACA.

In a closed-door meeting, much of which was open to press, Trump seemed to have opened the door to an ambitious legislation on comprehensive immigration that has eluded his predecessors.

“When you talk about comprehensive immigration reform, which is where I would like to get to eventually -- if we do the right bill here, we are not very far way. You know, we’ve done most of it,” Trump said, when the issue of comprehensive reform was raised by a Republican senator.

In a nod to the complexities of comprehensive reform, he added: “And if you want to take it that further step, I’ll take the heat, I don’t care. I don’t care -- I’ll take all the heat you want to give me, and I’ll take the heat off both the Democrats and the Republicans. My whole life has been heat.”