translated from Spanish: Trump mulls measures to protect ‘dreamers’ if they topup DACA

Washington– U.S. President Donald Trump met with Republican senators on Thursday to assess the possibility of pushing for a bill that protects from deportation the thousands of undocumented youth who came to the country as children, known as “dreamers.” Trump will consider that possibility only if the U.S. Supreme Court finally knocks down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in June, driven by former President Barack Obama and interrupted in 2017 by the current representative, according to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

“My conclusion is that if the court agrees with the president (in his decision to end DACA), we’re not going to allow the lives of these people to take a turn,” said Graham, who participated in the meeting with Trump along with other Republican senators , in statements to Fox News after the meeting.” What we’re going to do is try to push for a package (of measures) that protect the DACA population but also do things to fix this system that’s so broken, and we’ll see what happens when that time comes,” the senator added. The White House declined to comment on the meeting, which was not on Trump’s public agenda and involving some of the Republican senators best known for their hard line on immigration, such as Tom Cotton and David Perdue; in addition to Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Kevin Cramer or Martha McSally.
Graham said the president does not seem willing to sign a law that only protects “dreamers” from deportation, and wants to take the opportunity to extract from the Democratic opposition any more measures to reform the immigration system, promising hinder any agreement in an election year. In January 2018, Trump has already offered a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented youth – more than the 690,000 DACA-protected “dreamers” – in exchange for certain reforms to the legal immigration system and $25 billion in a decade to erect the wall with Mexico and reinforce the border.

Donald Trump. Photo AFP

Democrats’ refusal to grant him funding for the wall and Trump’s inflexibility on the issue prevented any progress in the DACA negotiations and the dreamers were left in limbo, although those who were already enrolled in the program before their annulment have been able to maintain their benefits for now.” The president has already put on the table an offer so that 1.8 million people who fit the DACA profile can have a path to citizenship, but he wants to get something to deal with the problem that underlies the border, Graham said.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), as of June 30, a total of 660,880 “dreamers” were covered by the DACA program, of which 529,760 were of Mexican origin, followed by 25,350 Salvadorans and 17,260 Guatemalans.



Original source in Spanish

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