Last year, President Trump scrapped the Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that protects roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants in the United States. He then set an expiry date of March 5, 2018, and called on Congress to come up with a solution.
Over the past several months, lawmakers have been working toward reaching a deal to protect DACA recipients before the March deadline—but to no avail. While House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly on Tuesday that President Trump is not expected to extend the current deadline.
“I don’t very much” the president would extend the program if lawmakers did not reach a deal to protect DACA recipients before the March deadline. He added that he was “not sure this president has the authority to extend it” since the original program was not based on law.
Recently, the White House rejected a bipartisan immigration plan that extended DACA protections but failed to provide adequate funding for the Trump administration’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Senators John McCain and Christopher Coon had proposed a budget bill that would grant permanent legal status to DACA recipients, known as Dreamers.
Although the plan calls for increased security along the border, it stops short of authorizing the $25-30 billion that Trump had proposed for the planned wall.
For more information, contact our San Jose immigration lawyer at Verma Law Firm today.