ADVERTISEMENTDemocratic lawmakers and a handful of Republicans are urging president Donald Trump not to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Daca.
The White House said is still reviewing the Obama-era program – often called Dreamers – that protects immigrants who entered the country illegally as children.
The programme protects an estimated 800,000 immigrants from deportation.
The overwhelming majority of the Dreamers immigrants came from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
As part of his election pledge, Trump had promised to crack down on illegal immigration to give more jobs to Americans. But business leaders say the Dreamers make important economic contributions.
The president says a decision will be made shortly.
The White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders: said “The president’s priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers. He wants to make sure this decision is done correctly, so he that’s what he’s doing now is finalizing that part.”
House of Representatives Speaker Ryan and Senator Orrin Hatch on Friday joined a small but growing number of lawmakers from the party that controls
Congress and the White House to speak out against killing Daca.
“I actually don’t think he should do that, and I believe that this is something Congress has to fix,” Ryan said in an interview with WCLO radio in his hometown of Janesville,Wisconsin.
Ryan said he believes Obama exceeded his authority in creating DACA by executive order, bypassing Congress, but therenow are “people who are in limbo”.
“These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home. And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution. That’s one that we’re working on. And I think we want to give
people peace of mind,” Ryan added.