A Dream Deferred: President Trump says he's ending DACA--a program that protects thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation--unless Congress acts to save it.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

Jessica Rojas was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. at the age of 5, when her parents crossed the border illegally in search of a better life for themselves and their children.

Growing up in Chicago, Rojas excelled in school and went on to college. But the chemical engineering degree she earned last year would have been virtually useless without a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which began five years ago. DACA allowed a major Chicago utility company to legally hire her despite her undocumented-immigrant status. She now has a $65,000-a-year job, helping to modernize the city's electrical grid.

But the life Rojas has built in the U.S. is in jeopardy. She's one of about 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who are currently protected by DACA, a program President Obama created by executive order to provide legal protections for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. In September, President Trump announced that he would end DACA by March unless Congress passes legislation to make it part of federal law.

"It's scary," Rojas says. "Because of DACA, I was able to come this far."

To qualify for the program, applicants must have entered the U.S. by age 16, lived here continuously since 2007, and committed no serious crimes. The protection lasts for two years and can be renewed.

President Trump has expressed ambivalence about DACA. As a candidate, he attacked the program as an amnesty for lawbreakers and promised to end it. But since he took office in January, the president's position has been less clear. He called the program participants, commonly known as Dreamers,* "absolutely incredible kids" who deserve compassion. But Trump says the program has to go because Obama never had the authority to create it in the first place.

"I have a love for these people," Trump said, referring to DACA recipients, "and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly."

Many members of Congress support DACA and want to pass a bill to save it. At press time, a deal between the president and congressional leaders was under discussion. But DACA is just one part of a broader debate about American immigration policy and how to handle the 11 million people living here illegally. And because that debate is so controversial, it's possible that any DACA legislation will get bogged down, or even derailed, by being part of a larger immigration reform bill.

Obama's Executive Order

Some see Dreamers as a...