Donald Trump Promises ‘Road To Citizenship’ For DACA Recipients
In an interview with Telemundo broadcast on Friday, President Donald Trump revealed that he is working on an executive order that will include a “road to citizenship” for those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, The Hill reported.
Speaking with anchor José Díaz-Balart, the president accused Democrats of walking away from a previous deal on DACA.
“The deal was done. DACA is going to be just fine. And I am going to be, over the next few weeks, signing an immigration bill that a lot of people don’t know about,” he said.
Former President Barack Obama created DACA in 2012. In 2017, Trump gave the United States Congress six months to pass a statutory replacement for the program. Republicans proposed their own bill, which the Democrats rejected. In June, the Supreme Court blocked the president’s rescission.
“I’m going to do a big executive order,” the president continued, saying that the Supreme Court has given him the power to sign a sweeping immigration bill.
He explained that DACA recipients will be “part of a much bigger bill on immigration.”
“It’s going to be a very big bill, a very good bill, and merit-based bill and it will include DACA, and I think people are going to be very happy.”
“But one of the aspects of the bill is going to be DACA. We’re going to have a road to citizenship,” the commander-in-chief added.
As The Hill noted, it remains unclear whether the president can grant DACA recipients permanent legal status.
As CNN reported, although Trump has claimed that he wants to protect and improve DACA, he has repeatedly tried to terminate the program. In recent weeks, the president has railed against Democrats and against the Supreme Court, alleging that the Court’s decision will not even help the recipients become American citizens.
However, according to legal experts, Congress still has the power to provide a pathway to citizenship.
Furthermore, according to the publication, the president has repeatedly shot down Democratic attempts to negotiate a deal, despite the fact that Democrats offered various concessions on immigration.
Key members of the Trump administration have expressed opposition to DACA. In June, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf described the program as “unlawful,” arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision never stated that the protections for immigrants were legal.
In April, Trump temporarily suspended immigration to the United States, saying that his goal is to protect American jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats criticized the decision, with New York Rep. Jerry Nadler arguing that the president is trying to distract the public from his administration’s failures.
