Minnesota Recipients Concerned After Trump Tweets 'DACA Is Dead'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A series of tweets from President Donald Trump saying DACA is dead is creating panic among the 6,000 DACA recipients here in Minnesota and the nearly 700,000 across the country.
DACA was created by former President Barack Obama to allow children who come to the U.S. illegally achieve a form of legal status.
President Trump's announcement last fall that he was ending DACA resulted in mass protests, including here in the Twin Cities. Since then, the President has said he would support a deal to protect the so-called DACA dreamers.
But that came to a crashing halt this week, with Presidential tweets saying, "NO MORE DACA DEAL!" and "Daca is dead."
Twin Cities immigration attorney Esteban Rivera represents 50 DACA recipients.
"The benefits of DACA is a work permit, security number, driver's license, in Minnesota and some other states you can get in-state tuition," Rivera said.
Rivera says many of his clients had high hopes after the President signaled he would support a deal to keep the dreamers here.
"Now with this last tweet they are getting very worried that they might need to depart the country soon," Rivera said.
While the President says the collapse of any DACA deal is the fault of Democrats, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison has fired back to the President on Twitter, saying, "You were never doing a DACA deal."
"I doubt that he was ever sincere because from the very beginning he rescinded DACA with no plan at all," Ellison said.
The fate of DACA recipients is currently before a federal appeals court, but the case is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and that won't happen soon. The first hearing before the Supreme Court wouldn't come until October, and a decision would not happen before the spring or early summer of 2019.
Those who have already been granted DACA status have to renew every two years. Right now renewals are being granted, but immigration Rivera says that could change if an Appeals court rules in the President's favor later this year.