Battered by Harvey, Houston’s immigrants await DACA decision,

HOUSTON — Aracely Martinez-Ramirez sat on the driveway by her rotting home, next to most of the family’s possessions, now slated for the trash: Her sisters’ flowered dresses, their baby dolls, a mud-caked Virgin Mary.

She had already battled a flood brought on by Hurricane Harvey and lost the house her family had bought — in full, in cash — just a few days before. Now, it seemed the president was looking to eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the program for unauthorized immigrants that allows her to work the three jobs that support the family.

“Why would he take it away?” said Ms. MartinezRamirez, 20, baking in the sour post-storm Texas heat. “What did we ever do wrong to him?”

Along the Gulf Coast, a panic has set in among immigrant families affected by the storm, after the Trump administration said it would make an announcement Tuesday about the future of DACA. Though the program, begun under President Barack Obama, has supporters in both parties, its critics call it both bad policy — suggesting that it encourages more illegal immigration — and unconstitutional.

The attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, has been among the initiative’s most determined opponents. He wrote a letter in June threatening to sue the federal government over DACA unless the administration phased it out. The notice was signed by nine of his counterparts in other states.

On Sunday, three officials told The New York Times that President Donald Trump was strongly considering ending the program, but only after he gives Congress six months to come up with a replacement. It was not clear what would happen if lawmakers failed to pass a bill by the deadline, and officials warned that Mr. Trump could still change his mind.

The 5-year-old program shields from deportation many unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the country as children, granting them two-year work permits that can be renewed. It applies to about 800,000 people, at least 124,000 of whom live in Texas; only California is home to more.

As a candidate, Mr. Trump vowed to “immediately terminate” DACA; more recently he has promised to treat recipients with “great heart” — a statement noted by flood-weary young immigrants here who said they feared losing their livelihoods after losing their homes.

“We love the Dreamers,” the president said as recently as Friday, employing a term many DACA recipients use to refer to themselves. It comes from an earlier effort to help them, a bill called the Dream Act that Congress never passed.