Trump’s DACA decision leaves Congress to find fix in short timeframe
President Trump sent the fate of young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children to Congress — handing off another divisive problem with a quick deadline to a body still reeling from the chaos and failure of Obamacare repeal and replacement.
“I can tell you in speaking with members of Congress, they want to be able to do something and do it right,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “And really, we have no choice. We have to be able to do something. And I think it’s going to work out well, and long term it’s going to be the right solution.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program yesterday, which protected from deportation young people typically brought into the United States illegally by their parents. Sessions called the program, which allowed about 800,000 young illegal immigrants to land jobs through two-year renewable work permits, “an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”
Congress now faces a sixmonth deadline to find a solution — those whose permits expire after March 5, won’t be able to renew them.
A fix isn’t expected to come easily. Congressional Republicans showed earlier this year they couldn’t even hash out an agreement on a long-promised Obamacare repeal, as divisions within the party derailed the efforts.
Previous pushes, such as the comprehensive immigration reform envisioned by the socalled “Gang of Eight” in 2013, have failed to pass.
And the Trump administration signaled yesterday the president won’t sign a resolution for the group some call “Dreamers” unless it also includes other illegal immigration issues, such as border security and the enforcement of existing laws, which would make passage more complicated.
“We can’t just take a onepiece fix,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “We’ve got to do an overall immigration reform that’s responsible and, frankly, that’s lawful and that’s what the president wants to see Congress do.”
Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the members of the Gang of Eight, said Trump needs to tell Congress what he’ll sign and what he won’t, and warned legislation could descend into chaotic bargaining.
“I’m concerned that an effort to help these young people might be turned into a vehicle for, ‘I’ll only vote for this if I can get this, or if I can get that,’ ” Rubio told the Miami Herald. “The only way this works is if it’s focused and narrowly tailored to the problem at hand.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan called DACA “an attempt to create law out of thin air,” but added that he hopes Congress and Trump “will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.”
But Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina did not sound as optimistic.
“The only thing that stands between you and certainty in your life is the Congress,” he said of the so-called Dreamers. “That cannot be that reassuring.”