A recent surge of news has surfaced about an immigration program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. DACA is an American immigration policy that has helped undocumented children since it was established by the Obama administration in June of 2012.  As of September 5th, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that Trump and his administration will be “rescinding the DACA program”.

According to Trump, ten state officials have ruled DACA as unconstitutional, forcing the President to give Congress six months to either make DACA a legal program or substitute the program with a whole new one. “The program is unlawful and unconstitutional and cannot be successfully defended in court,” said Trump.  

When Obama created DACA, it was not a legalized program, as he intended it to be temporary, only lasting about two years. Since then, about 800,000 children have been approved for the program. To get approved, applicants had to have arrived in the United States before the age of 16, and have lived here since 2007. During this time, the U.S. changed a law that made it more difficult for immigrants to gain legal status if they moved here illegally.  

According to Vox, “…children who crossed illegally into the US with their parents were growing up in a country where they could never become legal residents or citizens. These children became known as Dreamers, after the Dream Act, a piece of legislation meant to give them a path to citizenship”. This legislation was set back when Obama created DACA since Dreamers now had protection against deportation.