Pax Ahimsa Gethen via Wikimedia Commons
The March 5 deadline for protecting the Dreamers from deportation passed without Congressional action to make the protections permanent.
“In September, this administration callously rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and arbitrarily chose today as its final date,” said California Sen. Kamala Harris. “Although two nationwide injunctions allow for certain DACA recipients to renew their status, these young people remain in limbo.”
An estimated 45,000 Dreamers — people who were brought to America illegally as children yet know no other country — live and work in the San Diego region.
President Trump tweeted Monday that the impasse was the Democrats’ fault, saying, “It’s March 5th and the Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA. Gave them 6 months, they just don’t care. Where are they? We are ready to make a deal!”
But Harris said the Trump administration “created this crisis and sabotaged every effort by Congress to resolve it by using these young people as pawns to achieve an anti-immigrant agenda.”
Trump called for a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million Dreamers nationwide, but only if legislation included funding for a border wall and restrictions on legal immigration.
