Trump keeps Obama's 'Dreamer' program intact, but their parents face deportation
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has extended the Obama administration’s protections for “Dreamer” immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
The department announced on Thursday that immigrants enrolled in the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, would be eligible to seek extensions allowing them to remain in the country and would not have their work permits revoked before their expiration dates. The New York Times, USA Today and Politico covered the development.
Immigration lawyer David Leopold told the Times that the decision “is a big victory for Dreamers amid months of draconian and mean-spirited immigration enforcement policy.”
But Dreamer parents will not be protected from deportation. Homeland Security revoked President Barack Obama’s executive action seeking to protect them from deportation in a program called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans.
Homeland Security announced its decisions in guidance released ahead of a court deadline in a suit that had challenged Obama’s authority to implement the DAPA program. The U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 in the case in June 2016, leaving in place an injunction that had blocked the program from taking effect.
