Trump’s DACA Extension Buys Time for Him, Immigration Reformers Say

President Trump’s one-year extension of former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is about buying time ahead of the 2020 election, immigration reformers tell Breitbart News.

On Tuesday, Trump’s administration announced a one-year extension of DACA to undertake a “comprehensive review of the program.” The move means that nearly 800,000 DACA recipients will be able to apply for a one-year renewal of work permits.

NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks said the group is “disappointed” with Trump’s one-year DACA extension and called the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision, where Trump was told he would have to refile paperwork to end the program, “outrageous.”

Jenks said:

We understand that the courts are requiring the administration to jump through ridiculous hurdles to end a program created in a memo, but we are disappointed that the administration is granting a one-year extension to DACA beneficiaries. It remains outrageous that a court would actually order the President to continue an unlawful program.

Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said Trump must begin to refocus on Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s immigration record. Stain said:

Politically, the President needs to stop talking about DACA and spend his time explaining what the overall Biden immigration positions mean for America’s future. There is virtually no attention to this. Does Biden have a plan to stop illegal immigration, stop incentivizing illegal aliens when public benefits, stop asylum fraud, prevent more caravans — and will he restart a flood of more foreign labor? What’s the actual impact of what Biden wants?

Biden has vowed to halt deportations of illegal aliens for his first 100 days, dramatically increase the refugee resettlement program, free border crossers into the interior of the United States, provide amnesty to 11 to 22 million illegal aliens, increase legal immigration levels beyond already historic levels, and says illegal aliens “enrich” the U.S.

Stein said DACA remains “unlawful” and that “what Trump is doing is better than furthering an illegal program, and it buys time until after the election.”

“It’s not optimal, but probably the best he can do under the circumstances,” Stein said. “At least the President can focus on the bigger immigration issues for the next 100 days.”

D.A. King, a grassroots activist who heads the Dustin Inman Society, praised Trump’s decision and blasted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for their claim that the president has no authority to end DACA.

“Today is another cruel day for Dreamers, their families, and all Americans,” ACLU officials wrote in a statement following Trump’s announcement.

Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan called the decision to extend DACA for one year “a smart move” that allows Trump to avoid false attacks from Biden and Democrats.

“So now he will take a year to study it. That’s the exact thing that state lawmakers do when they don’t want to vote on a bill they think should not pass,” Vaughan said.

“[Trump] gets to keep it on his own terms, and the program doesn’t grow,” Vaughan said. “If Congress thinks there should be a legalization for DACAs, now they have space to get it done, next year.”

Vaughan said:

This is one time where kicking the can down the road makes sense. No one is hurt by this decision, at least not until the next violent person among the nearly 80,000 DACAs with a criminal history, commits a crime, and certainly, no one is hoping for that.

The extension does come at a time when a DACA illegal alien has been arrested and charged with killing three former law enforcement officers and injuring nine others in Texas this month.

Ivan Robles Navejas, a 28-year-old DACA illegal alien, has been able to remain in the U.S. for years thanks to the program. This month, Navejas is accused of killing 48-year-old retired officer Joseph Paglia, 74-year-old retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jerry Harbour, and retired U.S. Army officer Michael White.

Already, DACA-eligible illegal aliens in Texas are suing Trump to demand that new applicants be allowed to get on the program.

Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to be either criminals or gang members.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.