On Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted that if Democrats want a deal to protect hundreds of thousands of DACA Dreamers from deportation, they have to be willing to agree to a border wall and other changes to existing immigration laws, Politico reported.
DACA refers to the program created by the Obama Administration called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program protects young people who are in the country illegally from deportation. Most of the Dreamers, as they are called, were brought to the U.S. as young children and know no other home.
Trump Has Already Ended DACA, With Six-Month Delay
Earlier this year, President Trump said the DACA program would be put to a halt after a six-month delay. At the same time, he said he hoped Congress would use the six months to make the program into law, and if lawmakers could not agree to legislation, he would “revisit” the issue.
President Trump now appears to be using the Dreamers as a bargaining tool, saying that in order for the Dreamers to stay protected, Democrats must agree to tighter restrictions on immigration laws. In his tweet on Dec. 29, Trump called out the border wall, and ending chain migration and the lottery system as top priorities.
Will Democrats Agree to the Demands?
Chain migration refers to the current policy allowing immigrants in the U.S. to sponsor family members to join them in the country, such as petitioning for a spouse. The Diversity Visa Lottery is a program that has been around since the 1990s that gives visas to people from countries that have lower numbers immigrating to the U.S.
President Trump has been pushing tougher immigration laws and putting a stop to illegal immigration since he first hit the campaign trail, and these are issues that are important to many of his supporters so it is unlikely that he will back down.
Although Democrats seem unwilling to agree to any sort of deal that provides funding to the border wall, it is certainly possible that immigration laws in the U.S. could be changing in the near future.
For that reason, it is extremely important for anyone with business or family immigration needs to work with an immigration lawyer as soon as possible.