DACA Rescission (2017)
In September 2017, the Trump administration announced the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which had been established in 2012 to protect young immigrants, known as "Dreamers," from deportation and allow them to work legally in the United States. DACA was created as a temporary measure to address the plight of individuals brought to the U.S. illegally as children, aiming to provide them with a form of legal status while Congress deliberated on more permanent immigration solutions. The decision to end DACA was met with significant public backlash, including criticism from over four hundred business leaders who advocated for the protection of these individuals.
The rescission was partly influenced by legal threats from several states, which argued that DACA was unconstitutional. As a result of this decision, existing DACA recipients were informed they would maintain their protections until their current authorizations expired, but they faced potential deportation afterward if Congress did not enact new legislation. The move highlighted the deeply polarized views on immigration policy in the U.S., with many advocating for the rights of Dreamers and others arguing against what they perceive as unfair advantages for undocumented immigrants. Legal challenges to the rescission quickly emerged, underscoring the contentious nature of immigration reform in American politics.
DACA Rescission (2017)
Date: September 5, 2017
Place: United States
Summary
In September 2017, the administration of President Donald Trump repealed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provisionally deferred deportation for individuals brought to the United States illegally as children and also allowed them to work legally. The move was in keeping with Trump’s campaign promises to get tough on immigration, and polls showed majorities of Republicans supporting the president’s decision, while larger majorities of Democrats opposed it. Among the critics of Trump’s move were more than four hundred business executives who signed a letter to the president and Congress urging them to protect the “Dreamers,” the young immigrants who benefit from DACA.
Key Events
- June 15, 2012—DACA established under the administration of President Barack Obama.
- November 20, 2014—Obama announces an expansion of DACA as part of a series of executive actions on immigration.
- September 5, 2017—The Department of Homeland Security issues a memorandum canceling the one that established DACA.
Status
DACA protections are scheduled to begin phasing out on March 5, 2018. If, before that time, Congress can enact immigration reforms that enshrine the DACA protections or something similar in law, DACA beneficiaries may be spared deportation; however, amid congressional gridlock, immigration reform has been an elusive political goal for decades.
In-Depth Overview
In 2001, recognizing that individuals brought to the United States illegally as children were innocent of purposefully violating immigration law and were already integrated into US culture, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, introduced legislation known as the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). This measure, if passed into law, would apply to individuals who arrived illegally in the United States before age sixteen and who have been in the country for five years and have a high school diploma or GED, or have been admitted to college; these individuals would be granted conditional resident status, allowing them to work or go to school legally. After a period of time, they would then be eligible to apply for permanent resident (green card) status, as long as they had completed at least two years of college or military service. The young people who would benefit from the provisions of the DREAM Act became known as “Dreamers.”
The DREAM Act failed to earn sufficient Republican support for Congress to pass it, despite it being reintroduced several times over the ensuing years. In 2012, the Barack Obama administration sought to break this gridlock by issuing a memorandum entitled “Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children,” which established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA included provisions similar to those in the proposed DREAM Act—not granting legal status but deferring action on deportation and allowing work and school attendance for Dreamers for a renewable period of two years—until such time as Congress could agree on legislation to replace the executive action. In 2014, the Obama administration issued new guidelines expanding the parameters of the DACA program to include more people. By 2017, between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand people had registered for DACA benefits.
Supporters of DACA argue that individuals who have been living and working in the United States since childhood, and who did not themselves voluntarily violate immigration policies, should be treated differently than adult individuals who knowingly immigrate illegally. Critics argue that allowing undocumented migrants, however they entered the nation, to live and work in the United States takes away opportunities that would otherwise be available to American citizens. President Donald Trump and other anti-immigration advocates have suggested that undocumented immigrants increase crime rates or are more likely to commit crimes than American citizens. A number of studies contradict this view, however, including a March 2017 report from the libertarian Cato Institute showing that illegal immigrants were overall 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.
On September 5, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration had made the decision to rescind the DACA program. The Department of Homeland Security—which released the original memorandum establishing DACA—released a memorandum that same day rescinding the DACA memorandum. Existing DACA recipients retain their deferred status and work authorizations through the end of their current authorized period, and they were able to apply for renewals of those authorizations through October 5, 2017. However, after March 5, 2018, if Congress has not acted, DACA recipients will be subject to deportation once their authorizations expire. The rescission came partly in response to the threat of a lawsuit from ten states, led by Texas, asserting that DACA is illegal.
Trump received widespread criticism for his decision to end the DACA program. The heads of four hundred major corporations, including Google, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Apple, and Facebook, contributed to a letter urging Trump and Congress to protect the Dreamers and reconsider the decision to rescind DACA. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement saying that the decision was “particularly cruel” as the DACA program promised young people protection if they came out of hiding, and now they are being punished for doing so. Legal action also commenced on multiple fronts, with fifteen states and the District of Columbia joining New York v. Trump, a lawsuit seeking to maintain DACA protections. Former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, the author of the DACA program, announced in October that she and the University of California Board of Regents were also filing suit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of DACA students at the university.
Key Figures
Janet Napolitano: Former Homeland Security secretary who issued the DACA memorandum.
Jeff Sessions: Attorney general of the United States under Donald Trump.
Donald Trump: President of the United States.
Bibliography
Bowman, K., & O’Neil, E. (2017, September 18). Polls show why Trump flip-flopped on Dreamers. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/polls-show-why-trump-flip-flopped-dreamers-667021
Landgrave, M., & Nowrasteh, A. (2017, March 15). Criminal immigrants: Their numbers, demographics, and countries of origin. Cato Institute. Retrieved from https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-reform-bulletin/criminal-immigrants-their-numbers-demographics-countries
McGregor, J. (2017, September 6). CEOs blast Trump’s “dreamers” decision: “Particularly cruel.” Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-daca-business-recation-20170905-story.html
Memorandum on rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). (2017, September 5). Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from -daca" https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/09/05/memorandum-rescission-daca
Napolitano, J. (2017, October 12). I wrote DACA. Now I’m suing to ensure Trump can’t destroy it. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/i-wrote-daca-now-i-m-suing-ensure-trump-can-ncna809916
Shear, M. D., & Davis, J. H. (2017, September 5). Trump moves to end DACA and calls on Congress to act. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/us/politics/trump-daca-dreamers-immigration.html