Trump abandons Dreamers despite past sympathy

President Trump talks sympathetically about the country's 500,000 Dreamers — but his administration is putting them in the crosshairs for deportation. Why it matters: The recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are finding it no longer reliably protects them from deportation or disruptions to their ability to work legally. Trump officials are slowing renewals, narrowing deportation protections and ramping up enforcement against some DACA recipients. And in Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court has delivered the program's biggest challenge yet, ruling that DACA is illegal. Ongoing litigation is expected to stop Texas-based Dreamers from getting work authorization in the future. The big picture: In Trump's first term, he almost struck a deal to give Dreamers a pathway to citizenship in exchange for funding for the border wall. "I really think this sells itself," Trump told a bipartisan group of lawmakers in 2018. "If we do this properly, DACA, you're not so far away from comprehensive immigration reform. And if you want to take it that further step, I'll take the heat. I don't care." The deal never materialized. Joe Edlow , Trump's current head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency overseeing DACA renewals, has called DACA "illegal" and "quasi-amnesty." Between the lines : Immigration hardliners think the administration is effectively ending DACA while trying to avoid political fallout. "If the Trump administration were to move to end DACA, which I think they more or less have but not expressly at this point, then it's just going to trigger a bunch of bad headlines," said Art Arthur, of the Center for Immigration Studies and a former immigration judge. A White House official declined to say whether Trump's position on DACA has changed or if he's talked with Edlow about the issue. "The Trump Administration remains focused on enforcing federal immigration law," the officia...

Original source: Axios