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Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Have Received Amnesty Under President Trump

AFP PHOTO/ Omar TORRES

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enacted under President Obama has so far provided amnesty to an estimated 10,000 illegal immigrants since President Trump took office.

Trump vowed on the campaign pledge to “immediately” end President Obama’s executive amnesty. The president has not done this, either through executive order or by simply sending a memo to the United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) instructing them to suspend DACA applications and renewals.

USCIS approved an average of 761 DACA applications and renewals a day during the Fiscal Year 2016. As Trump has been in office for 14 business days, this means that an estimated 10,654 illegal immigrants have received amnesty during his presidency.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter argued that President Trump’s executive order nullified DACA as it says the policy of the executive branch is to “detain” individuals suspected of violating federal immigration law, “expedite determinations” of those individuals claim of eligibility to stay in the U.S. and “remove promptly” those individuals whose legal claims have been rejected.

A spokesperson for the USCIS, however, told The Daily Caller they are still accepting and processing DACA requests under existing policy.

The Trump administration has been vague about how it plans to address DACA recipients, commonly known as DREAMers. White House press secretary Sean Spicer has parroted an Obama administration line saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s priority lies with people who “have done harm to our country.” Spicer also added that Trump would approach the issue of DREAMers in a “very humane way.”

This has not sat well with anti-immigration hawks like Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. He said in a blog post shortly after the election that “if the Trump administration just continues to issue work permits to illegal aliens as though the election never happened, not only is it an in-your-face betrayal, it also weakens congressional Republicans’ bargaining position.”

Correction: USCIS approved an average of 761 DACA applications and renewals a day during the Fiscal Year 2016 not an average of 1,034.