CNN’s Acosta: Kids’ ‘lives are on the line’ after Trump DACA decision

CNN’s Jim Acosta declared that “lives are on the line” after President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and pressed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on why he didn’t announce the decision himself.

“Why did the president not come out and make this announcement himself today?” Acosta asked during the televised press briefing on Tuesday. “Why did he leave it to his attorney general? 

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“It’s his decision,” he continued. “These kids, their lives are on the line because of what he’s doing.”

Sanders countered that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was the proper person to make the announcement since the program was “deemed illegal” by experts.

“This is a big part of the legal process,” Sanders replied. “This was deemed illegal by just about every legal expert that you can find, including Obama’s attorneys.”

“It would be the Department of Justice to make a legal recommendation, and that’s what they did,” she added.

Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration over the next six months will phase out the DACA program, which grants immigrants brought to the country illegally as minors a reprieve from deportation. The program was created under the Obama administration in 2012. 

“The program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” Sessions said.

“There can be no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will,” Trump added in a statement released after Sessions spoke, urging Congress to act.

Democrats slammed the decision, including former President Barack Obama. 

“To target these young people is wrong — because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating — because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel,” Obama wrote on his Facebook page.