蜜桃影视

As the Trump administration negotiates with Congress on a legislative fix to replace the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the White House is pushing a strategy that may come at the expense of hundreds of thousands of children who immigrated to the U.S. without their parents.

The White House on Sunday聽 to Congress highlighting 鈥減rinciples鈥� lawmakers should follow in crafting a legislative fix to DACA, an Obama-era program from 2012 that provided work permits and deportation relief to some 800,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The Trump administration聽rescinded DACA in September, giving Congress six months to craft a replacement.

Among the administration proposals is a crackdown on undocumented immigrants who enter the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, many fleeing violence in Central America.

The White House proposal would eliminate protections for unaccompanied minors 鈥渟o long as they are not victims of human trafficking and can be safely returned home or removed to safe third countries,鈥� according to Reuters.

Additionally, the proposal demands funding for Trump鈥檚 long-promised border wall and thousands of additional immigration officers. A White House official told Reuters the administration would push Congress to provide DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, with 鈥渓egal status,鈥� not permanent citizenship.

The proposal prompted an outcry Sunday evening from Democratic leaders who are in negotiations with Trump to replace DACA. 鈥淭he administration can鈥檛 be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community, and to the vast majority of Americans,鈥� Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi聽.

When immigration authorities聽, they鈥檙e transferred to the care of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, which releases them to sponsors 鈥� most of whom are family members 鈥� while awaiting immigration proceedings.

When the administration announced it would rescind DACA, Trump聽 in unaccompanied minors that peaked in 2014, when nearly 70,000 children were detained at the Southern border, arriving primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. That was a 77 percent increase over the previous year. Between October 2016 and August 2017, the Office of Refugee Resettlement released more than 40,400 unaccompanied children to sponsors.

Although these young people would not have met the extensive list of DACA eligibility requirements, The Washington Post reported that聽 smugglers told the children they would be allowed to stay in the U.S. under Obama policies. But Doris Meissner, senior fellow and director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, told the newspaper the smugglers鈥� promise likely stemmed from an anti-human-trafficking law, signed in 2008 by then-President George W. Bush, that allows children from countries that do not border the U.S. to stay with relatives 鈥� often for years 鈥� until they face deportation hearings.

Federal law guarantees all children access to public education, regardless of immigration status, so schools in recent years have聽 for their arrival. It鈥檚 become increasingly clear in recent months, however, that these young immigrants have become a target under the Trump administration鈥檚 crackdown on immigrant gangs and, more broadly, its efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement.

In a聽 on rescinding DACA, Trump said the program 鈥渉elped spur鈥� the surge in unaccompanied minors, 鈥渋ncluding, in some cases, young people who would become members of violent gangs throughout our county, such as MS-13.鈥� At a September speech in Boston,聽 unaccompanied minors 鈥渨olves in sheep鈥檚 clothing鈥� who are gang members.

In Long Island, New York, attorneys and civil rights advocates say undocumented students are being聽charged with unsubstantiated claims of gang affiliation and shipped off to immigration detention facilities without due process.

Family members of unaccompanied minors have also become targets of immigration enforcement and criminal investigations, on charges including conspiracy, visa fraud, and human smuggling.

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