Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has assured hundreds of thousands of young undocumented migrants in the U.S. that a future Joe Biden administration will allow them to stay in the country, on the third anniversary of President Donald Trump's attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The 2012 DACA allows young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country, protecting them from deportation. There are some 800,000 DACA recipients—so-called "Dreamers"—living in the U.S., who qualified by being younger than 31 as of 15 June 2012.
All DACA recipients are vetted for any criminal history or threat to national security. All must be students or have completed school or military service, and their status must be renewed every two years.
The Trump administration announced in September 2017 that it would phase out the program as part of its push to tighten America's southern border and reduce the scale of migration from South and Central America. The administration claimed the DACA program—introduced by President Barack Obama—is unlawful and unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the DACA program in June, rejecting Trump's bid to end it. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 5-4 majority opinion, describing Trump's effort to end DACA as "arbitrary and capricious."
Harris tweeted Saturday: "Three years ago today, the administration arbitrarily tried to end DACA and threw hundreds of thousands of Dreamers' lives into crisis. I want every Dreamer to know that we still have your back. Your home is here, and we must continue fighting to ensure that."
Harris, an American citizen, is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica and is the first black woman selected for a major party ticket in U.S. history.
Trump has already said his administration will again try to wind up DACA, issuing a scathing appraisal of the June Supreme Court decision as politically motivated and trying to use it to whip up his base ahead of the November election.
"These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives," he tweeted.
"We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!" he wrote, adding in a subsequent tweet: "Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?"
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
