President-elect Trump is under pressure to preserve an Obama administration directive from 2012 that granted relief from deportation to illegal immigrant youth and could be undone the minute he takes office, unlike other Obama-era policies.
The incoming Republican president could take several paths to protect the 740,000 undocumented students afforded temporary legal status and work permits under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, and who many view as Americans in every way except for citizenship.
Folded into a 10-point immigration plan released by the president-elect during his campaign was a pledge to cancel all of Obama’s immigration-related executive actions, among which DACA is included.
Choosing to continue the program would, at first glance, mark a major departure from one of Trump’s most memorable campaign promises and leave anti-amnesty Republicans who supported his candidacy skeptical of whether the ambitious immigration reform he vowed to deliver will ever come to fruition.
Others believe preserving DACA, or choosing to suspend enrollment while his administration works with Congress on a legislative solution, could be an opportunity for Trump to give a little to get a lot in return.
“I’d be against keeping it if it didn’t have some kind of real meaningful quid pro quo attached to it, like mandatory E-verify [an electronic work authorization verification system] or getting rid of chain migration,” said Mark Kirkorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank that views DACA as “plainly unconstitutional.”
Trump may not need congressional authorization to begin erecting his proposed 2,000-mile border wall and he will have broad discretion to enforce existing immigration laws that have been flouted without consequence under the current administration, but he will have to work with lawmakers if he wishes to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities or end birthright citizenship, among other proposals.
Recent comments by the president-elect seem to suggest the notorious deal-maker may be open to preserving DACA to earn political capital that he could eventually spend on immigration policy reform.
“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump told Time last week in response to a question about so-called “Dreamers.”
“They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here,” he continued. “Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
If he decides to stick to his 10-point plan, Trump could revoke the deferred action status of DACA recipients by reversing his predecessor’s executive memorandum. Doing so would result in the immediate cancellation of DACA enrollees’ work permits and make them subject to removal.
“That would be logistically very difficult because there’s a regulation which says that in order to revoke a work permit, the Department of Homeland Security must serve notice to the person and give reasons for the revocation,” said Stephen Legomsky, an immigration law expert and professor at the Washington University School of Law.
Trump could also phase out DACA by saying “we’re going to stop granting renewals, because under the existing plan recipients are eligible to renew their work permit every two years, and stop receiving new applications,” Legomsky explained.
Another option, one that would require increased resources and federal expenditures for additional manpower, would be to begin systematically deporting DACA recipients. Such a move is unlikely considering Trump has said his initial focus will be to expel criminal illegal immigrants.
“If he feels he has to do something, those first two options would be easier to do than the last two and be much less disruptive to the work force,” Legomsky said. “All of his positions are very fluid and it might be that in exchange for additional resources for border enforcement, he might be willing to grant some concessions.”
The possibility of a scenario of that sort unfolding has drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“If I listen to [Trump’s] campaign promises, I would expect on his first day he would cancel all of the DAPA and DACA documents out there that President Obama unconstitutionally issued,” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told CNN last Thursday.
Others seem heartened by Trump’s recent tone on protecting unathorized immigrant youth and his declared intention to “work something out.”
“We’re encouraged by these comments … they present an opportunity to do the right thing for more than 744,000 young people who grew up here,” Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a joint statement.
Trump’s unpredictable style, combined with the zero-tolerance immigration policy he sold his supporters, has Durbin and Graham nevertheless preparing a bipartisan legislative response with the understanding that his immigration crackdown could become the issue on which he refuses to back down.
