President Trump plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program “as it exists today” on Friday, Fox News reports.
Under DACA, nearly 800,000 people brought to the country illegally as children have received work permits and deferral from deportation.
According to Fox, a senior administration official told correspondent John Roberts that Trump would end the program “as early as” Friday.
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The program, instituted through an executive order signed by President Obama in 2012, is facing a legal challenge from Texas and nine other states, which threatened court action to attempt to block it unless Trump rescinds DACA by Sept. 5.
But White House officials on Thursday pushed back on the report, claiming no decision has been made.
“A final decision on that front has not been made,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily press briefing. “When we have a final decision, this is under review, there are a lot of components that need to be looked at.
On the Fox report, Sanders told a reporter: “No offense to your colleagues from Fox News, but I’m better informed than they are … it has not been finalized.”
“The administration is still reviewing the policy,” said White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert about potential plans to end the program.
Bossert said the lawsuits “won’t affect the policy decision, but it will affect the timing of it. We certainly have to watch the lawsuits and how they matriculate through the courts and when the deadlines will be.”
Trump and senior administration officials, including White House chief of staff John Kelly, have said they don’t believe DACA would hold up in court. And the Department of Justice has declined to say whether it would defend the program from the potential lawsuit.
Rumors have been circulating for weeks about how Trump plans to respond to the threat of court action, prompting Democrats, some Republicans and activists to mount a public defense of the program.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) introduced amendments Tuesday that would prevent public funds from being used to alter the memo that instituted DACA in 2012.
And California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said Monday his office was considering mounting a defense of the program if the Justice Department refuses to act.
– Jonathan Easley contributed to this report
Updated: 3:48 p.m.