U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi is praising President Donald Trump’s decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Trump on Tuesday began dismantling the government program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared the program created under President Barack Obama’s administration “an unconstitutional exercise of authority” that must be revoked.
“President Obama’s unconstitutional DACA program was one of the most egregious examples of his executive overreach,” Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, said Tuesday. “The Trump administration’s decision to phase out DACA is good news for the rule of law.”
Tiberi said the onus is now on Congress to write new legislation that will protect the so-called “Dreamers,” as the young people were called by Obama. The Trump administration is giving Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix.
“As the son of immigrants who legally came to the United States from Italy, I have seen the success story of legal immigration firsthand,” Tiberi said. “In order to ensure this country remains a beacon of hope we must adhere to the Constitution, which empowers Congress to write immigration laws, not the executive branch. Congress has six months to act. This is an opportunity for us to identify needed solutions that are fair and orderly for Dreamers who didn’t choose to break our laws and know no other home than America.”
New applications will be halted for DACA, which has provided nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the U.S. in the form of two-year, renewable work permits. If Congress fails to address the issue within the six-month period, the government will stop renewing permits for people already covered by the program.
According to Department of Homeland Security officials, people with permits whose renewals are set to expire between now and March 5, 2018, will be able to re-apply — so long as their applications are submitted by Oct. 5, 2017, one month from Tuesday. No permits will be revoked before their existing expiration dates, and applications already in the pipeline will be processed, they said.
Trump, in a statement, said the change would be “a gradual process, not a sudden phase out.”
“Thus, in effect, I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” he said. He said he did not favor punishing children for the actions of their parents. At the same time, though, “we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of law” and “young Americans have dreams, too.”
Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Trump was taking “the wrong approach,” and he added: “The federal government has a responsibility to defend and secure our borders, but we must do so in a way that upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.”
Trump’s announcement came the same day as a deadline set by a group of Republican state officials who said they would challenge DACA in court unless the Trump administration rescinded the program. Administration officials argued the program might not hold up in court — and said that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would throw the program into far more chaos than the move they chose.
Trump has spent months wrestling with what to do with DACA, which he slammed during his campaign as illegal “amnesty.” But Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for the young people protected by the program.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement he hoped the “House and Senate, with the president’s leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.”
But Congress has repeatedly tried — and failed — to come together on immigration overhaul legislation, and it remains uncertain whether the House would succeed in passing anything on the divisive topic.
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