Judge’s decision on DACA program draws Trump’s ire
WASHINGTON — A federal judge’s decision to stop President Donald Trump from ending protections for so-called Dreamers offered the young immigrants a temporary reprieve but may have stalled the urgency in Congress toward a more lasting legislative solution.
The president denounced the federal courts Wednesday as “broken and unfair” after a district judge in San Francisco issued a temporary ruling keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in place, despite Trump’s decision to end it this year. The administration vowed to request a stay and appeal.
But the nationwide preliminary injunction produced cross-currents in Congress, where lawmakers have been meeting frantically in bipartisan groups to come up with deportation protections for some 700,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have been working, attending school or serving in the military.
Pressure had been mounting for Congress to broker a deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. That motivation could slip after the federal judge’s order, giving opponents an opening for continued delay.
“This is a huge step forward but the fight is not over,” said California’s Attorney Genera Xavier Becerra,
who filed the suit.
“The real question now turns to the Congress and the president. Will they act?” Becerra said. “It is time for Congress to give us a lasting solution that will leave no doubt that the Dreamers are Americans and that they are here to stay.”
Advocates for immigrants say more than 120 DACA recipients a day have already lost protected status, a number that is expected to swell to 1,000 in March if Trump’s decision to end the program
is allowed.
Adrian Reyna, a Dreamer and immigration activist, promised that Dreamers would continue flooding Capitol Hill offices as they have for weeks warning Congress off inaction.
“Don’t let anyone tell you the urgency to get this done is not real,” said Reyna, the Dream Act campaign director at United We Dream, a leading advocacy group.
“The clock is ticking,” he said. “People have already lost protections.”