DACA Has Been Rescinded. Now What?
By Duy Pham and Wendy Cervantes
On September 5, 2017, the Trump Administration announced it would be ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA has provided temporary relief from deportation, as well as work authorization, to more than 800,000 young immigrants who came to the United States as children.
The president’s decision followed months of mixed messages. While he vacillated in public statements about his intention to end DACA, he ramped up enforcement actions that have terrorized the immigrant community. On June 29, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and nine other state attorneys general submitted a letter threatening a lawsuit unless the Administration rescinded DACA by September 5. Rather than uphold the program until a legislative solution could be secured by Congress, President Trump instead chose to jeopardize the lives of nearly one million Dreamers, their families, and their communities by terminating a successful program that has transformed lives and repeatedly held up to previous legal challenges.
