The Congress is going to strike a deal about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA) and the young people who were going to be affected by it could eventually get citizenship, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 24. He, however, added that it was “up to the Democrats.”
The end to the DACA Act, also known as Dreamers Act, would have affected 800,000 people, including Indians and other South Asians. As many as 5,500 Indians and Pakistanis are covered under DACA and an additional 17,000 Indians are eligible for it, according to the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a non-profit organization.
“Tell them not to worry. We are going to solve the problem. It’s up to the Democrats, but they should not be worried,” Trump said to reporters before leaving for the World Economic Forum summit at Davos in Switzerland on Jan. 25 evening. “We’re going to morph into it. It’s going to happen,” Trump said, adding that DACA recipients could become citizens “at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.”
He added that he would ask the Congress for a total of $30 billion for a border wall with Mexico and additional border security measures. His statement was in line with the older statements he made while meeting Republican and Democrat lawmakers. He had indicated that as long as the Mexico-US border wall is approved in the Congress, DACA individuals can stay and eventually get citizenship through a “clean” DACA bill.
“This statement represents presidential leadership on immigration that will allow us to solve a difficult problem,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a statement shortly after Trump’s comments were reported. “I truly appreciate President Trump making it clear that he supports a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. This will greatly help the Senate efforts to craft a proposal which President Trump can sign into law.”
After Trump’s statement, the White House said that Trump will release a “legislative framework” for immigration negotiations on Jan. 29, which “represents a compromise that members of both parties can support.”
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Jan. 13 that it had resumed accepting applications for renewing DACA status, but were not taking any new applications. The USCIS had begun the process after a federal judge said that while the matter is under litigation the DACA individuals should be allowed to renew their applications.