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| Damocles and the sword |
On June 16 the Trump administration rescinded Obama’s DAPA policy but left DACA in place, shielding some 800,000 younger immigrants from deportation for now. But the White House refused to say whether it would try to eliminate the program in the future.
Trump pledged during the campaign that he would rescind DACA. Probably his waffling on the issue reflects the program’s popularity and demonstrates once again the strength of the Dreamer movement, the young activists whose protests pushed Obama to grant DACA in the first place. Trump's failure to kill the program seemed to upset some people in the anti-immigrant right, while others suggested that Trump could use threats to DACA as a bargaining chip to push other parts of his program. As usual the rightwingers insisted on calling DACA an “amnesty.” Someone should tell Ann Coulter and the National Review how to use an online dictionary. An amnesty is a pardon; DACA simply puts off the possibility of deportation for a period of time, and provides no protection against arbitrary detentions by ICE agents. The appropriate comparison for DACA is to the sword of Damocles.—TPOI editor
‘Dreamers’ to Stay in U.S. for Now, but Long-Term Fate Is Unclear
“With Trump, we can expect anything. Tomorrow he can say that he wants to deport us,” he said. “I don’t know what to make of this, or what to believe.”
By Michael D. Shear and Vivian Yee, New York Times
June 16, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump will not immediately eliminate protections for the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as small children, according to new memorandums issued by the administration on Thursday night.
But White House officials said on Friday morning that Mr. Trump had not made a decision about the long-term fate of the program and might yet follow through on a campaign pledge to take away work permits from the immigrants or deport them.[…]
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A day of rumors over deportation policy highlights divisions within the Trump administration
“There’s been a lot of work to change minds and hearts. So I don’t think it’s easy for Donald Trump to just end this program,” said Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns for the American Civil Liberties Union.
By Michael A. Memoli and Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times
June 16, 2017
A flurry of rumors, conflicting reports and divergent statements on Friday highlighted deep divisions within the Trump administration over a major element of immigration policy — the fate of the roughly 750,000 so-called Dreamers who are shielded from deportation by an Obama-era policy.
The rumors began after Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, moving to meet a court deadline, issued a memorandum late Thursday evening that formally ended the legal fight over former President Obama’s 2014 DAPA program, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. That initiative sought to temporarily remove the threat of deportation for more than 4 million immigrant parents of children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.[…]
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Trump Killed A Key Obama Immigration Program. But What He Didn’t Do Matters More.
Dreamers aren’t entirely safe, but the program created to protect them is still intact.
By Elise Foley, Huffington Post
June 16, 2017
WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration formalized an immigration policy shift on Thursday evening that was notable for what it didn’t do as much as what it did. The Department of Homeland Security rescinded DAPA, a never-implemented program that would have allowed some undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to stay in the country.
But more significantly, it left in place the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a policy that President Donald Trump promised to eliminate, and one that has shielded hundreds of thousands from deportation.[…]
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