Why?
According to Wikipedia,
“Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an American immigration policy started by the Obama administration in June 2012 that allows certain undocumented immigrants to the United States who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit.
To be eligible, immigrants must have entered the United States before their 16th birthday and before June 2007, be currently in school, a high school graduate or be honorably discharged from the military, be under age 31 as of June 15, 2012, and not have been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor or three other misdemeanors, or otherwise pose a threat to national security. The program does not provide lawful status or a path to citizenship.
The policy was created after acknowledgment that these immigrants had been largely raised in the United States, and was seen as a way to remove immigration enforcement attention from “low priority” individuals who act as good citizens. The undocumented student population was rapidly increasing; approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools on a yearly basis. This executive order now faces threats by President Donald Trump.
At the program’s start, the Pew Research Center estimated that up to 1.7 million people might be eligible. As of June 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received 844,931 initial applications for DACA status, of which 741,546 (88%) were approved, 60,269 (7%) were denied, and 43,121 (5%) were pending. Over half of those accepted reside in California and Texas.”
Because DACA was an executive order President Trump could remove this order, which would threaten deportation of 740,000 thousands people regsitered under DACA. The US government now has all the information needed to use a military mass deportation of these people, which was a Trump campaign promise.
According to a Vox article about leaked Trump Executive Orders,
“Another apparent order draft, titled “Ending unconstitutional executive amnesties,” would end a major Obama program that has effectively protected more than 740,000 unauthorized immigrants from deportation since 2012…
…it says that work permits already issued under the program will remain valid. However, these permits are all already set to expire at some point in the next two years, and once they expire, they will not be renewed, according to the order. Starting very soon, a trickle of immigrants would start to lose their DACA protections — and by January 2019, barring a policy reversal or an act of Congress, all of them would.
Even while still protected by DACA, the order says, the government will not grant them “advance parole.” That means that should they leave the country, they would not be allowed to return.
Finally, this draft order would also put the nail in the coffin of Obama’s 2014 attempt to extend that program to cover a broader group of unauthorized immigrants — DAPA — which had already been blocked in court. All in all, if implemented, the order would roll back President Obama’s most significant legacy on immigration.”
Learn More
PEW: 5 facts about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program
Vox: Read leaked drafts of 4 White House executive orders on Muslim ban, end to DREAMer program, and more
Wikileaks: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
The Nation:Fear and Fight in the Final Days of DACA
SF Chroncile: Trump’s unexpected delay on Dreamers baffles foes and supporters
Follow Campaign
International Refugee Assistant Project
National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights
Reform Immigration for America
Petition: Keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program
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