DHS/DREAMERS/IMMIGRATION/JOHN KELLY: “President Barack Obama’s program that has protected 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation is likely to be struck down soon by federal courts, predict the Trump administration and even defenders of the program.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly warned the Congressional Hispanic Caucus this week that the program to protect so-called DREAMers is in jeopardy, assuming 10 Republican-led states follow through on threats to mount legal challenges to the program by September.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, allowed undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to stay and receive work permits, providing they don’t commit any disqualifying crimes.
The legal challenges are based on claims that Obama lacked authority to grant ‘amnesty’ to DREAMers.
Stephen Legomsky, a senior counselor at Homeland Security under Obama, said the former president was well within his legal rights when he created DACA. But Legomsky doubted the program will survive because its fate will be decided by a conservative judge in Texas, a conservative appeals court in Louisiana and the conservative-leaning Supreme Court…
Kelly, who spoke Wednesday to the Hispanic lawmakers, said he is sympathetic to the plight of DREAMers and would like Congress to pass a law permanently protecting them. That is highly unlikely, however, with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate.”
-Alan Gomez, “DREAMer protections face demise soon by federal courts,” USA Today, July 13, 2017 09:55pm