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US to reject new 'Dreamer' requests for immigration protection

WION Web Team
Washington, DC, United States of AmericaUpdated: Jul 29, 2020, 09:00 AM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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In 2017, President Donald Trump tried to cancel the programme called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protected the Dreamers from deportation and allowed them to work and study in America.

The US will not accept any new applications for protection for "Dreamers," young migrants who arrived illegally in the US as minors, and will shorten the deportation protections of those whose eligibility is soon to expire. However, those who already have a permit under the programme may renew it for a year.

In 2017, President Donald Trump tried to cancel the programme called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protected the Dreamers from deportation and allowed them to work and study in America.

The Supreme Court, however, blocked the Trump administration's attempt to kill DACA.

The review is likely to take at least 100 days, putting off any final decision on the programme until after the November 3 election in which Trump is fighting for a second term against Democrat Joe Biden.

Asked at a news conference on Tuesday whether he was still considering a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, Trump said: “We are going to make... the DACA people and representatives happy, and we’re also going to end up with a fantastic merit-based immigration system.” He did not elaborate.

The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017. It will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record.

The previous policy had been to extend the eligibility for two years.

In addition, a memorandum issued by the Department of Homeland Security said permits allowing DACA recipients to travel outside the country would only be issued in “exceptional circumstances.”

Trump has made his hardline stance on both legal and illegal immigration a central platform of his presidency and his 2020 re-election campaign, but DACA is a complicated issue for him because of increasing public support of the programme.

Some 700,000 people in America have benefited from the DACA programme, most of them of Latin American origin.