7,000 Indians to be hit when DACA ends

IT IS NOT YET CLEAR AS TO WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO PEOPLE WHO CURRENTLY HAVE WORK PERMITS UNDER THE PROGRAMME

US President Donald Trump is set to scrap a programme that grants work permits to immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children, a move likely to impact more than 7,000 Indian-Americans, a media report said on Monday.

The programme -– Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA) –- was a key immigration reform of the former US President Barack Obama. India ranks 11th among countries of origin for DACA students, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services statistics available till March 31, 2017.

Trump is expected to announce the end of the programme but with a six-month delay, Associated Press reported quoting people familiar with the plans. The delay in the formal dismantling of the programme would be intended to give Congress time to decide whether it wants to address the status of the so-called Dreamers legislation, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking.

But it was not immediately clear how the six-month delay would work in practice and what would happen to people who currently have work permits under the programme, or whose permits expire during the six-month stretch.

It also was unclear exactly what would happen if Congress failed to pass a measure by the considered deadline, they said. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a planned Tuesday announcement.

The president, who has been grappling with the issue for months, has been known to change his mind in the past and could still shift course. The Obama-era programme has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the form of two-year, renewable work permits. AGENCIES