Trump's DACA deadline passes with no decisive action
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President Trump's March 5 deadline for phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program elapsed Monday with no resolution. DACA, which provides protections for young immigrants brought into America illegally as children, was supposed to terminate Monday after Trump announced he would end the program in September, but a number of court rulings have blocked Trump from ending the program.
Trump has blamed Democrats for having "totally forgotten about DACA." The national policy director for the ACLU, Faiz Shakir, expressed his own frustrations with Congress to NPR: "There's a concern that the March 5 deadline could die with a whimper rather than a bang," he said. "And by that I mean people might simply have forgotten that DREAMers were left in this state of limbo and no action was taken to save them."
Protests in support of the 700,000 DACA recipients are underway at the National Mall to mark the deadline:
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"The calls for a fix stand in contrast with the lack of momentum for any progress in Washington, with little likelihood of that changing in the near future," CNN writes. "Congress has a few options lingering on the back burner, but none are showing signs of imminent movement."
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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