6 months & counting until chaos, ruined lives
Punting young immigs’ fate to congress State lawsuits, econ pain will be factors
THE CONGRESSIONAL agenda, Republican alliances, American businesses and the lives of about 800,000 young immigrants — all of this and more could be disrupted by President Trump’s decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival.
This is some of what’s at stake:
800,000 young livesBarack
Obama used an executive order in 2012 to prevent the deportation of young immigrants who spent most of their lives in the U.S. Today, the program protects about 800,000 immigrants and allows them to legally work in America.
The average DACA recipient came to the U.S. at the age of 6. Most are currently in their 20s, all have no criminal record and most — 91% — are employed.
Questions remain about how the six-month delay under consideration by Trump would work in practice. It isn’t clear what would happen to people who currently have work permits through the program, or those whose permits expire during the six-month period.
It also is unclear exactly what would happen if Congress failed to pass a measure by the deadline, White House officials said.
Those protections would vanish, one way or another, if Trump cuts off the program — upending the lives of every immigrant who built a career, a family and a life in America since Obama’s order, potentially opening them up deportation.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that ending DACA would be “one of the ugliest and cruelest decisions ever made by a President.”
What would come next, besides fear and dread for all who depend on DACA, remains unclear, because there is no easy path for a way out of the program. This means Trump’s decision would only be the beginning of an arduous battle to determine DACA’s afterlife — while the lives of those who need it hang in the balance.
A new fight in Congress
According to initial reports, Trump plans to put a six-month delay on his DACA withdrawal so that Congress can replace Obama’s executive order with new legislation that accomplishes a similar objective.
But that solution come easily — if at all.
DACA is a broadly popular program with politicians, but the deeply divided Congress would likely have no consensus on what should replace it.
The best evidence of that is the Dream Act, a 16-year-old bill that eventually inspired Obama’s order.
The legislation, which was introduced in 2001 with bipartisan support, attempted to create an elaborate process for allowing some undocumented immi- will not
grant children to earn conditional or permanent residency.
But an agreement never emerged for the best path to citizenship, and multiple attempts to pass the legislation failed. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced yet another version of the bill in July.
Trump is also tossing this task at an overburdened Congress that already has to spend the next few months focusing on time-sensitive legislative priorities such as government spending, a debt ceiling increase, infrastructure bills and possible health care and tax reform.
A new fight in states, too
States have been deeply divided on DACA, and an end to the program would set off a new war for which states get their way.
Nine Republican state attorneys general — including the top lawman for Texas, one of the states with the most DACA immigrants — have threatened to sue the Trump administration if it keeps the program alive.
Meanwhile, several left-leaning states — including California and Illinois — have implemented local laws granting protections similar to those guaranteed by DACA.
Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia have urged Trump to save DACA and offered to help him defend it in court.
As Congress would struggle to write the next chapter after DACA, the inevitable faceoff between states would only complicate the process, and likely lead to legal battles extending far beyond Trump’s six-month Congress deadline.
An economic hit
With the potential loss of thousands of DACA immigrants now holding jobs, a messy end to the program could leave a gaping hole for employers nationwide, leading to unknown economic consequences.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday he wasn’t worried about the “economic impact” because the administration will “make sure that we have plenty of workers in this economy.”
In other words, Trump’s team seems to be bargaining on making the economy boom so much that American workers will fill the spots left open by Dreamers.
Since job growth under Trump has so far been slower than he promised, that’s a risky bet.
Trump vs. Trump
Which Trump will win? While he vowed to end the DACA program during the campaign, Trump has hedged on that promise since he took office. He said in February that he would treat the “incredible kids” protected by DACA “with heart.” Asked about his decision last week, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “We love the Dreamers . . . We think the Dreamers are terrific.”