By Anita Kumar / McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — On the fifth anniversary of one of former President Barack Obama’s signature immigration orders, the Trump administration rescinded a major piece of the policy, ending the deferred deportation of undocumented parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents.
The program, which could have affected as many as 4 million people in the United States, had never gone into effect after an appeals court halted its implementation. Still, the Department of Homeland Security decision, announced Thursday night, signals that President Donald Trump plans to go through with at least some of the immigration proposals that powered his 2016 campaign.
Thursday’s decision does not affect another, related Obama-era memorandum that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — or DACA — that applies to children who were brought to the United States illegally.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would end the deferred deportation policy, calling it “amnesty” and an abuse of the president’s powers. But after inauguration, he has not acted, much to the dismay of some of his own supporters.
The White House says it continues to study DACA.
“DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me,” Trump said in February at a news conference. “You have these incredible kids, in many cases not in all cases. In some of the cases they’re having DACA and they’re gang members and they’re drug dealers too. But you have some absolutely incredible kids … they were brought here in such a way, it’s a very, very tough subject.”
The program pertaining to parents — the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, often called DAPA — would have allowed parents in the country illegally with children who are citizens or legal residents to stay in the country with a three-year renewable work permit if they had been in the United States since January 2010.
But a Texas district court imposed an injunction that was upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court, on a 4-4 tie, upheld the case last year.
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly made the decision announced Thursday after consulting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions “because there is no credible path forward to litigate the currently enjoined policy,” according to a statement from the department.
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