DACA deadline Tuesday

Some 74,300 Florida residents could face deportation within two years as President Donald Trump ends the program that protects them from deportation.

Trump is expected to announce by Tuesday if he will end the Obama-era program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Recipients, who arrived in the country illegally as children, are often referred to as Dreamers.

The president is expected to end the program by allowing current two-year work permits to expire without permitting renewals.

“We love the Dreamers, we love everybody,” Trump said Friday in declaring his intentions.

But Elizabeth Betancourt isn’t feeling the love. Now 20 years old and a student at Broward College, Betancourt came to the United States at 2 years old. She has been back to Mexico.

“It is worrying me because I really don’t know what the future holds if it does end,” Betancourt said. “If it expires, there’s nothing else I can really do. I have to go back. I don’t really want to.”

Betancourt applied to be in the DACA program in 2012, not long after it was created by executive order during the Obama administration. With those protections in place, she was able to enroll in college to fulfill her dream of being a nurse. Now, she faces an uncertain future, one that could involve a new life in a country she does not know.

“I just have to work out a plan to see what I could do,” she said. “Possibly go back to [Mexico] and see what I can do there.”

Trump faces a Tuesday deadline to end DACA as officials from 10 states — but not Florida — said they would challenge the program, which grants temporary protection from deportation. To qualify, people never