The Trump administration announced Tuesday the “orderly wind down” of Barack Obama’s Deferred Acton for Childhood Arrivals program, saying the executive order was “unconstitutional” and can only be authorized by Congress, reports Fox News.
The program, commonly referred to as DACA, will be phased out over a six-month period, giving legislators time to address the concerns of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant minors living throughout the United States.
President Obama’s executive order granted legal status to illegal immigrants brought to the United States under the age of 16, allowing those minors to attend school and obtain work permits.
Elaine Duke, the Acting Director of Homeland Security, released a statement on the White House’s decision to scrap Obama’s program, saying the announcement was intended to give Congressional lawmakers “time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with reporters following the President’s decision, blasting the Obama administration’s “unconstitutional exercise.”
The executive branch, through DACA, deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize on multiple occasions,” Sessions said. “Such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”