Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday he was not worried about any financial fallout related to ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, despite business advocates warning the deportation of so-called “Dreamers” could cause the economy to shed $460 billion. ”
“As it relates to immigration, the president is very focused on legal immigration,” Mnuchin told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “As it relates to the economic impact, I am less concerned about the economic impact. We’ll make sure that we have plenty of workers in this economy.”
DACA, an Obama-era policy, provides temporary legal reprieve to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors. President Trump has teased that a decision regarding his position on the scheme would be announced Tuesday, with many expecting he will rollback the initiative.
Mnuchin said the Trump administration recognized DACA was a “complicated issue”, but the priority is putting people back to work.
“There’s a lot of people that left the workforce and our objective is to bring them back into the workforce,” he said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose state is home to the second-most number of Dreamers in the country, said the problems with DACA were symptomatic of a larger “unresolved” controversy.
“We wouldn’t have this whole issue about DACA if Congress would step up and pass immigration reform and do so in working with the president,” Abbott said on “Fox News Sunday.”
