Trump Administration Keeps DACA in Place

In a reversal from President Trump's campaign promise to “immediately terminate” a program that grants certain undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children protection from deportation and the right to legally work, his administration on Thursday said it was keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in place.

In an FAQ on the Department of Homeland Security's website, the agency said that current beneficiaries of DACA will continue to be eligible to seek a two-year extension of their status upon expiration and that “no work permits will be terminated prior to their current expiration dates.” More than 700,000 young people, many of whom college students, benefit from the DACA program, and many college leaders have called for it to be continued.

Trump has been inconsistent on his statements about DACA, but since his election has softened his tone and said he would deal with the issue “with heart,” without pledging to continue it.

The announcement that DACA will remain in effect came as part of an announcement that the Trump administration had rescinded an Obama administration policy memo that would have extended DACA-like protections to certain parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Implementation of that program, called DAPA for short, had been blocked by the courts.