Politico
By Ted Hesson
October 13, 2017
DACA EXTENSION POSSIBLE?: “President Trump will extend a March 5 deadline to end protections for young undocumented immigrants if Congress fails to act by then, according to a Republican senator who spoke directly with the president about the issue,” Elise Viebeck reports in the Washington Post.
“Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Trump told him he was willing to ‘give it some more time’ to allow lawmakers to find a solution for ‘dreamers,’ unauthorized immigrants brought to this country as children, if Congress does not pass legislation extending protections before time is up,” Viebeck writes.
When the Trump administration announced last month that it would phase out the program, it also allowed people with enrollment that expired between Sept. 5 and March 5 to apply for a two-year renewal by Oct. 5. At least 86 percent of those eligible have applied for the benefit (federal officials are still tallying applications). But after March 5, so-called Dreamers in the program will start to lose their enrollment, with no chance to reapply.
Lankford spoke to Viebeck outside a town hall in Tulsa on Thursday night: “The president’s comment to me was that, ‘We put a six-month deadline out there. Let’s work it out. If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively,” Lankford said. The senator said Trump didn’t specify a timeline. “He wants a legislative solution,” Lankford told Viebeck. “His focus was, ‘We’ve got to get a legislative solution.’ ”
The possibility that Trump could extend DACA isn’t such a stretch. When he announced on Sept. 5 that he would phase out the program, he suggested the decision might not be final. “Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do),” he tweeted. “If they can’t, I will revisit this issue!” But an extension could undermine the administration’s argument that they ended the program because they thought it wasn’t lawful or constitutional. It could also lend firepower to critics who contend the cutoff deadlines were arbitrary. Read more from the Post here.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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