Trump winds down DACA for immigrant children

WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Tuesday began winding down an Obama-era immigration program designed to protect undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children, but invited Congress to preserve it through legislation within six months.

“I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday. Still, he added, “we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.”

Trump insisted Congress should be responsible for immigration policy. “The legislative branch, not the executive branch, writes these laws,” he said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the U.S. would rescind the 2012 order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Sessions called the protections provided by former President Barack Obama’s DACA program an “unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”

The Department of Homeland Security will stop accepting applications to the DACA program immediately, but current recipients would not be affected until March 5. This gives Congress time to find a legislative solution to replace the program, which shields about 800,000 young from deportation.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the announcement came Tuesday because of deadlines from a lawsuit by Republican state attorneys general challenging DACA. Rather than risk a judicial decision suddenly ending DACA, she said Trump authorized an “orderly wind down.”

In a Facebook posting criticizing the decision, Obama noted that Congress couldn’t agree on a plan during his presidency, so he acted “because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents.”

Obama described Trump’s decision as wrong, self-defeating, and “cruel,” and added, “ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated.”

Many lawmakers questioned whether Congress, already bogged down on health care and tax reform among other issues, will be able to pass a hotbutton immigration bill before March. immigrants