DACA-BLOCKER NIX
A federal judge late Tuesday night halted the Trump administration’s plans to junk an Obama-era policy that protects young “Dreamer” immigrants from deportation.
The state of California and other plaintiffs won a ruling from San Francisco federal Judge William Alsup, who said immigrants protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, “were likely to suffer serious, irreparable harm” without court action. Alsup said plaintiffs have a strong chance of winning at trial.
DACA shields about 800,000 “Dreamers” who were kids when their undocumented parents brought them to America.
“DACA covers a class of immigrants whose presence, seemingly all agree, pose the least, if any, threat and allows them to sign up for honest labor on the condition of continued good behavior,” Alsup ruled.
“This has become an important program for DACA recipients and their families, for the employers who hire them, for our tax treasuries and for our economy.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how the ruling would impact contentious talks between Democrats seeking to preserve DACA and Republicans who want to tie it to immigration reform and President Trump’s proposed border wall.
Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said: “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend this [administration] position, and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation.”
Alsup’s ruling came hours after Trump held a bipartisan White House meeting with about two dozen lawmakers on immigration reform, his desire for a wall and the Dreamers.
Trump said at the meeting — which he allowed to be aired on TV — that he was willing to “take the heat” if Democrats and Republicans could agree on comprehensive immigration reform, promising to sign whatever bill they came up with.
“I will take all the heat you want to give me, and take the heat off the Democrats and the Republicans,” Trump said. “I like heat.”
In his conciliatory comments, Trump urged lawmakers to forge a bipartisan solution and insisted they work to protect DACA and then tackle comprehensive immigration reform “the next afternoon.”
“I’m not saying I want this or I want that,” Trump said.
But the White House quickly clarified that Trump would demand that any deal for the Dreamers include funding for his border wall and other items on his immigration wish list.
“During the closed-door portion of the meeting, they reached an agreement to negotiate legislation that accomplishes critically needed reforms in four high-priority areas: border security, chain migration, the visa lottery and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.