President Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to “immediately” end former President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants. But Trump’s press secretary continues to refuse to clearly answer how or when this would occur, and this has immigration hawks worrying.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protects an estimated 750,000 illegal immigrants from deportation. DACA not only protects illegal aliens from deportation, but gives them a work permit, social security number and access to welfare.
President Trump could rescind DACA either through executive order, or the Trump administration could just send a memo to the United States Customs and Immigration Services telling them to suspend DACA applications or renewals.
His administration has done neither, despite word from Vice President Mike Pence and President Trump last week that they would sign an executive order on immigration Monday.
When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about Trump repealing DACA, he responded: “First and foremost, the president’s been very, very clear that we need to direct agencies to focus on those who are in this country illegally and have a record – a criminal record or oppose a threat to the American people.”
“That’s where the priorities are going to be and then we’re going to continue to work through the entire number of folks that are here illegally. But right now the clear focus is on that,” Spicer added. The Obama administration similarly used the line that they were focusing on violent illegal aliens.
Trump’s chief of staff Reince Priebus also dodged a question regarding action on amnesty during a Sunday news show. He said, “I think we’re going to work with House and Senate leadership as well to get a long-term solution on that issue.”
“That’s crazy and confusing,” William Gheen, founder of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, told LifeZette about Spicer’s comments. “Donald Trump promised to end Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders, and that’s DAPA and DACA.”
Immigration hawk Mickey Kaus has also been worrying on Twitter about Trump’s lack of a decision so far on DACA, particularly because a USCIS spokesman said they are still accepting and processing DACA requests. USCIS processes an estimated 800 DACA requests from illegal aliens daily.
“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,” Mark Krikorian, the Center for Immigration Studies executive director, wrote in a blog post.
Krikorian pointed to the fact that Trump seems willing to protect DREAMers as he said “we’re going to work something out” for them during a December interview.
“But Chuck Schumer isn’t going to deal unless there’s pressure, and the prospect of hundreds of DACAs losing their work permits each day that Schumer holds out is an important element of that pressure,” Krikorian said.