(The Center Square) – President-elect Donald Trump says he’d work on a plan to ensure DACA recipients remain in the U.S. after his administration previously tried to end the program and as federal judges continue to rule it’s illegal.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump repeated his pledge to deport foreign nationals in the country illegally, prioritizing criminals, as his border czar Tom Homan has explained to The Center Square.
When asked if so-called “dreamers” would be deported, those in the country illegally through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), he said he hoped to work something out for them to remain in the U.S.
“We have to do something about the dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country,” he said, adding that “Republicans are very open to the dreamers.”
When asked if he wanted them to stay, he replied, “I do. I want to be able to work something out, and it should’ve been able to be worked out over the last three or four years and it never got worked out. You know, Biden could’ve done it because he controlled, you know, Congress to a certain extent, right? He could’ve done something, but they didn’t do it.”
The reason why, multiple Republican attorneys general argue, is because DACA is illegal. Dozens of Republican attorneys general have sued to end DACA, which has been held up in litigation since 2012.
Trump’s latest comments are a reversal from the policies of his first administration when his Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared DACA was illegal and unconstitutional. In 2017, Sessions tried to end it, was sued, and the Supreme Court ruled that his actions were outside of the law, The Center Square reported.
Former President Barack Obama created DACA via executive order to shield children from deportation who were brought into the country illegally by their parents. The program has been in litigation for 12 years.
In every case, federal judges have ruled executive action creating DACA, extending it, amending it or ending it, is illegal because only Congress can create or amend laws related to illegal and legal immigration.
In several ongoing cases, federal judges continue to rule that DACA is illegal.
In one case led by Texas, a coalition of states sued to end DACA. In it, a federal judge ruled more than once that DACA was illegal, arguing, “Congress, for any number of reasons, has decided not to pass DACA-like legislation … The Executive Branch cannot usurp the power bestowed on Congress by the Constitution – even to fill a void,” The Center Square reported.
In another multi-state lawsuit, another federal judge ruled that a Biden administration attempt to provide DACA recipients with free healthcare funded by taxpayers was illegal, The Center Square reported.
In June, President Joe Biden announced he was expanding deportation protections for DACA recipients and streamlining request waivers to make it easier for them to obtain temporary visas, The Center Square reported. Last month, a federal judge also struck this down, again arguing it was illegal, The Center Square reported.
Numerous reports suggest between 700,000 and 800,000 DACA recipients live in the U.S. The Los Angeles Times reports there are 578,680 on record with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as of March 2023.
DACA supporters argue recipients should be granted citizenship, claiming they contribute to the U.S. economy and are constructive members of society.
Others argue those with criminal records, at a minimum, should be deported. Within the first five years of the program, nearly 80,000 DACA recipients were released into the U.S. with arrest records, The Center Square reported.
