The Trump administration will end an Obama-era program allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors to remain in the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday.
The administration will “wind down” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects about 800,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide from deportation, including nearly 100 Maine residents who U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said will be affected immediately by the decision.
Sessions called the program an unconstitutional overreach of executive power during a Tuesday morning press conference, but the administration is giving lawmakers a window to replace DACA with protections that have congressional support before the program expires in six months.
The announcement followed months of indecision from President Donald Trump, who promised to rescind DACA on the campaign trail but later suggested that people who are protected by it should “rest easy.”
Uncertainty over the program struck fear into so-called “dreamers,” one of whom told the Bangor Daily News in June that waiting for Trump to decide has been “like being a little kid afraid of the dark, wrapped in a blanket waiting for a monster to come, waiting for the sunlight.”
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Trump rescinds protections for ‘dreamers,’ nearly 100 in Maine affected,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Jake Beiberg, please follow this link to the BDN online.
