Democrats drop DACA recipients from budget talks
By
Patrick Martin
20 March 2018
Congressional Democratic leaders have decided that there will be no protection for DACA recipients—the young undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children—in the omnibus budget bill that must pass the House and Senate by midnight Friday night.
The budget bill, appropriating funds for all major federal agencies for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, is the last piece of major legislation that Congress must pass before the November 6 election. It is widely expected that there will be no significant legislative action after that, as all members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the members of the Senate concentrate on their renomination and reelection campaigns.
That means if no legal protection for DACA recipients is attached to the budget bill, the issue is likely dead until after the election. President Trump rescinded the executive order establishing the DACA program last year, with the action taking effect two weeks ago, on March 5. But two federal district courts, one in California and one in New York, have blocked this action at least temporarily, issuing orders to the US Customs and Immigration Services to continue renewing two-year work permits for DACA recipients.
The Trump administration sought emergency review by the Supreme Court, but the court refused to take the matter up outside the normal appeals process. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is already taking up the California case, and an appeal of the New York decision is likely to be heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
The delayed action on Trump’s rescinding of DACA has given the Democrats a certain political cover, as they can pretend that the issue no…