At least some of them.
And so he tried to protect about one and a half million of them by dusting off something called
the DREAM act, or the ...
which gave permanent residency to those who were ...
In other words, young illegal immigrants who were blameless, effectively American,
and ready to make a contribution.
But that got filibustered in the Senate.
So in 2012 Obama just ignored Congress and did it himself,
by instructing the border police to not deport anyone who qualified as a "DREAM"er.
That was called ...
Catchy.
The DACA kids were not given permanent residency, but they were allowed to work, get a loan,
and do pretty much anything else.
and the immigration hawks definitely did NOT think that was good.
They took it to court immediately, and it remains there to this day.
But before the federal courts deliver their verdict, the jury has come in on the policy's effectiveness.
After being covered by DACA, the 800,000 participants got proper work permits, and then they experienced
and should any of them have committed a crime, they lost their DACA status immediately.
In other words, it was a win-win.
So it's no surprise that it's also popular.
78% of voters want these people to have legal status
and only 14% of voters want to deport them.
Even amongst Trump voters, 73% want these people made fully legal
48% want them to become citizens,
and only 23% of Trump voters want them deported.
Even Rush Limbaugh's OK with DREAMers being legalised.
These people are teaching kindergarten for heaven's sake.
They ought to stay. I mean, they enrich our society, they bus the society,
and what have we got to lose?
By the way, did I mention this program's nearly free?
Because the DACA people are charged for their own background checks and processing costs.
In fact, deporting them would cost about $60 billion.
Not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars of reduced economic growth
from removing 800,000 productive young people.
So, there's that too.
In other words, it's not a big surprise that despite all the heated rhetoric, the Trump administration
kept this program going.
I mean, who would oppose a slam dunk like ...
Breitbart! Of course.
But they're not the only ones.
Ten state attorneys-general have threatened that if Trump doesn't end the DACA program by Tuesday
They're going to resume the court case against it,
and it could well be found unconstitutional.
Not because of the program itself, but because Obama created the program unilaterally
over the will of Congress.
So Trump has some decisions to make.
Will he defend DACA in court?
Will he try to push it through Congress and make it stick?
Or will he use the fact that he's got all these kids' names and details
to catch them and deport them to a country that many of them don't even remember coming from
We'll find out any day now how this chapter ends.