NILC Response to Reports of Possible End to DACA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2017

CONTACT
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Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822

NILC Response to Reports of Possible End to DACA

WASHINGTON — News media reported today that the Trump administration is seriously considering ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

DACA allows immigrant youth who meet certain requirements to live and work in the U.S. temporarily. Since the program started in 2012, it has had a transformative impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of immigrant youth and their communities, and tremendous benefits for our country as a whole.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“If Trump decides to end the successful DACA program, it would signal that he has decided to follow the advice of the more extremist voices in the White House and appeal to the white supremacists in his base rather than to courageously lead in this moment. For more than five years, DACA has improved the lives not just of the young people who benefit from it, but of millions more who live and work with immigrant youth each and every day.

“During more than seven months of being operative during the Trump administration, the DACA program has worked just as well as it did under the Obama administration. Trump’s possible decision to bend to the will of a few state attorneys general who gave him a legal ultimatum would be shortsighted politically, economically, and societally.

“After so much damage, Trump has an opportunity to do the right thing by keeping this program in place. He shouldn’t squander it.

“DACA has been a lifeline for nearly 800,000 young people who have been able to flourish because the federal government gave them a chance to live, study, work, and grow in the country they call home, without the fear of being deported. We will use every tool available inside and outside the courtroom to protect the rights of DACA recipients and all of our immigrant family and community members.”

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