Trump Administration Rescinds DACA, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That 800,000 Young Americans Brought Here As Children Were Contributing To The Country

WASHINGTON. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday morning that the Trump administration would wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, ending an Obama-era policy that had for five years permitted roughly 800,000 young immigrants brought to the United States as children to work, attend school, and pay taxes without fear of removal to countries many of them did not remember.

The decision, delivered by Sessions rather than the President, was framed as the restoration of constitutional order. Under the rescission, no new DACA applications would be accepted, and the Department of Homeland Security would begin phasing out renewals on a six-month delay, giving Congress a window to pass comprehensive immigration legislation it had been declining to pass for sixteen years.

"We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law," Sessions said, identifying both qualities as freshly relevant the moment the administration decided to remove teachers, paramedics, and active-duty servicemembers from the country in which they had grown up. The Attorney General praised the orderly nature of the wind-down, noting that recipients would have ample time to make plans for lives in nations where they did not speak the language, hold legal status, or know any living relatives.

President Trump, who had previously called DACA recipients "incredible kids" and pledged to treat them "with heart," issued a written statement clarifying that he loved them very much and was rescinding their protections out of deep affection. Sources within the administration confirmed that the President had authorized Sessions to make the announcement personally so as to spare himself the awkwardness of saying the relevant words on camera, a delegation strategy the White House described as "leadership."

Within hours, lawsuits were filed in California, New York, and the District of Columbia, with state attorneys general arguing that the rescission was arbitrary, capricious, and motivated by animus, three legal terms the administration would spend the next three years discovering apply to its work product with surprising frequency. The Supreme Court would ultimately rule in June 2020 that the rescission had been inadequately justified, a verdict the administration accepted by attempting to rescind DACA again.

At press time, the President had reiterated his great love for the program he was ending, and asked Congress to fix the situation he had just personally created.