Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Trump’s decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program corrects an overreach by President Obama. On the other side of the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move “heartless.”
The two will be at the center of a battle on Capitol Hill about the future of DACA recipients who currently have legal status.
“President Obama wrongly believed he had the authority to re-write our immigration law. Today’s action by President Trump corrects that fundamental mistake,” McConnell said in a statement.
He added, “This Congress will continue working on securing our border and ensuring a lawful system of immigration that works.”
Schumer, however, appears prepared to fight the rollback of former President Barack Obama’s executive order that allowed individuals who were brought into the U.S. as children to receive legal status.
“Most Americans know how heartless the DACA decision is; ripping apart families and telling people who have worked hard to become Americans for years that they have to leave the country,” Schumer said in a statement. “But we often forget how vital these hardworking people and their contributions are to our economy and to tens of thousands of businesses who will be hurt if the administration’s order stands.”
The New York Democrat went on to say, “The human and economic toll of rescinding DACA will be far reaching and Democrats will do everything we can to prevent President Trump’s terribly wrong order from becoming reality.”
The Trump administration delayed rescinding the DACA program for six months, which could give Congress an opportunity to find a legislative solution to deal with the issue.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that regardless of how well-intentioned DACA may be, legislative solution is going to be a compromise.
“However well-intentioned DACA may have been, the program was created by executive edict rather than by Congress as the Constitution requires. Because of President Obama’s executive overreach, DACA has faced numerous legitimate legal challenges, and now President Trump has asked Congress to sort it out,” Grassley said.
He explained, “Any legislative solution is going to have to be a compromise that addresses the status of those who have been unlawfully brought to this country and upholds the rule of law. President Trump should continue to work with Congress to pass reforms through the legislative process that encourage lawful immigration.”