Immigrants benefitting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program face an uncertain future given the likely end of the program, according to Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
{mosads}While courts have left in place the program allowing immigrants who came to the United States as children to stay here, the Trump administration is seeking to end it, and there is little, if any, chance for congressional action soon.
“Nobody’s breathing a sigh of relief,” Brown told The Hill.
“They know — even if they still have status right now, they know it could end and they know it could end at any time. They know the only permanent lasting solution for them is if Congress passes a law and the president signs it.
“It’s actually more uncertain now because we don’t know when it’s going to end, but it probably will,” she added.
Congress spent most of February trying to come up with a fix for the DACA program before a March 5 deadline that President Trump imposed last year.
So far, efforts to move forward with various solutions have failed to win 60 votes in the Senate.
In the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has co-sponsored a bill backed by many conservatives, but that legislation is opposed by Democrats and does not have enough support to pass the chamber.
“These are not immigration bills,” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez told The Hill. “These are anti-immigrant bills, and I’m not gonna support anti-immigrant bills.”