Dreamers, Texas AG Await President Trump's Decision On DACA
DALLAS (CBS11) - Jose Santoyo of Dallas says he's anxious about President Trump's decision Tuesday that could impact the rest of his life.
"I was a little stressed out," Santoyo said.
The 25-year-old is among more than 100,000 people in Texas and 800,000 nationwide whose parents brought them illegally to this country when they were children.
Santoyo said he's feeling no differently than others who share his situation. "It's mostly anxiety, more than fear right now. I think we've heard this so much that we've lost the fear, and I think we're at the point, we just want this to be over."
Santoyo showed CBS11 a photo of him at the age of seven, one year before his parents brought him to Texas and settled in Corsicana.
He was able to get a driver's license and work permit, after then President Obama announced a program in 2012, called DACA, that would protect him and others from deportation.
Texas joined other states that year in challenging DACA, and won a reprieve in federal court.
Texas and nine other states recently threatened to take legal action against President Trump Tuesday if he didn't end DACA.
Marc Rylander, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said President Obama didn't have the authority to enact DACA without Congress first passing a bill.
"This whole discussion is about the U.S. Constitution," said Rylander.
Multiple news outlets report President Trump will announce Tuesday he'll end DACA in six months.
"If the president says to the states hey, would you give me more time to push this thing through Congress and make it happen, we'll wish him well, but yeah, I think we would be open to work with this administration as we always have been," said Rylander.
SMU political science professor Cal Jillson said that scenario would benefit the President.
"I think it is a wise thing for him to do because he promised he would during the campaign. He's doing it in such a way to diffuse the blame that would come against him by saying Congress had an opportunity to move and didn't do it."
Aside from DACA, Congress already has a lot to consider this month: increasing the debt ceiling, passing a budget, Harvey relief and tax reform.
Jose Santoyo though said he isn't optimistic Congress will pass a bill that would eventually grant him citizenship.
"We've seen the gridlock in Washington and how our lives are used for their political theater," Santoyo said.
