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Protesters attend a rally in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in downtown Los Angeles, California, USA Sept. 1, 2017.  EFE/Felipe Chacón
Protesters attend a rally in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in downtown Los Angeles, California, USA Sept. 1, 2017.  EFE/Felipe Chacón

Dreamers await Trump's decision on DACA

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to hold a news briefing Tuesday morning on the future of DACA, an Obama-era program that shields young immigrants…

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President Donald Trump is expected to announce today his decision on wheteher to end up or not an Obama-era program that has allowed some 800,000 undocumented young people - known as DREAMers - to remain in the United States.

Despite the opposition of some key Republican leaders and also some top US executives, including Facebook and Apple CEO's, Trump has already decided to end the DACA program,  reported Politico on Sunday.  

 Launched in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) gave undocumented young people who were brought into the US as children the opportunity to pursue education or jobs without fear of deportation.

As a candidate, Trump promised to end the program, but he has never acted on that promise. On the contrary, he has said repeatedly that Dreamers wouldn't be a priority for immigration officers and expressed sympathy towards them. 

"We love the DREAMers. We love everybody. We think the DREAMers are terrific," said Trump when asked whether DREAMers should be worried about the future of DACA.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, added to his profile picture on his Facebook page to say, “#HereToStay. I Support DACA.”

The chief executive of Apple, Timothy D. Cook, twitted: “250 of my Apple coworkers are #Dreamers. I stand with them.”

  Hundreds of prominent business leaders, including the heads of companies such as Microsoft and Amazon, wrote to the president urging him to maintain the program and warning of negative economic consequences if DACA is scrapped.

According the letter, 65 percent of Dreamers have bought a car and 16 percent have purchased their own home. tIf he Dreamers were deported, this economic activity would cease. 

Former presidential candidate and Vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders tweeted: “If Trump decides to end DACA, it will be one of the ugliest and cruelest decisions ever made by a president in our modern history.”

 The Obama administration conceived of DACA as a way to aid the intended beneficiaries of the DREAM Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that has been stalled in Congress for more than a decade.

 DACA status must be renewed every two years.

The announcement is expected to be made today by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Justice Department said Sessions would “not be taking questions” after the Tuesday morning briefing with reporters, as reported in ABC News.

FOX News already reported Thursday that Trump was poised to announce the end of DACA, while allowing those who recently renewed their protected status to keep the benefits for the duration of the two-year period.

The president can terminate DACA by executive order, as Obama never secured congressional approval for the initiative.

 Though Trump promised to scrap DACA during the 2016 campaign, he acknowledged shortly after becoming president that the issue was difficult and vowed to handle the question "with heart."

  The president is under pressure from conservatives to end the program. The attorneys general of Texas and nine other Republican-controlled states have threatened to sue the federal government if Trump does not terminate DACA by Sept. 5.

  On Friday, however, Tennessee's attorney general said that his office was withdrawing from the planned suit.

  "(T)here is a human element to this, however, that is not lost on me and should not be ignored," Herbert Slatery III wrote in a letter to Tennessee's two senators, Republicans Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.

  High-ranking Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have likewise advised Trump to maintain DACA.

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