President Donald Trump ordered the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The policy better known as DACA allowed children who arrived in the U-S without paperwork to work and live here without fear of deportation. The retraction would affect 800,000 people in the United States, 8,000 of which live in Wisconsin.
The announcement does not bring an immediate end to DACA. Instead, the program will officially end March 5th. However, those people with DACA permits that expire before the March 5th deadline can renew them before October 5th. Director of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, says that ending DACA is emblematic of the broader trends toward discriminatory deportation policies.
A deadline imposed by a Texas lawsuit brought the discussion about the future of DACA to a head this week. A handful of states told the Trump administration that they would include DACA in an existing lawsuit surrounding Obama era immigration reforms unless Trump moved to repeal it by September 5th. The house and senate now have 6 months to create legislation to save the DACA program.
There have been numerous protests against the move to repeal DACA, including a hunger strike that took place in a park outside of Paul Ryan’s Racine office.
WORT reporter Will Kenneally has more on the impact the program has in Wisconsin.
