5-Year DACA Anniversary Marked by Protest Amid Fear It Will End

Migrant rights advocates, allies, and youth took to the streets across the U.S. for the fifth anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to demand that President Donald Trump preserve the Obama-era deportation relief program which offered a lifeline to nearly 800,000 undocumented residents who arrived in the United States as minors.

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The 2012 initiative provides renewable 2-year administrative relief from deportation for qualifying unauthorized migrants and grants them the right to enroll in college, legally find employment and obtain drivers' licenses.

It's also positively viewed by the U.S. public, with recent polls indicating 78 percent support the program.

Hundreds marched to the White House chanting slogans in defense of immigrant rights.

25 people were arrested in a civil disobedience action, including the Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez, Maryland State Delegate Ana Sol-Gutierrez and Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group CASA.

The actions were held amid fears that the program could come to a halt if Republican officials in 10 states, including governors and attorneys general, follow through on threats to file a federal lawsuit if Attorney General Jeff Sessions fails to terminate the program. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate, Sessions claimed that DACA is “very questionable” on constitutional grounds.

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Trump has come under fire from influential critics on the far right of his party who claim that his pledges to retain the DACA are tantamount to a betrayal.

He has claimed that his administration would “show great heart” in respect to the program's future and has described it as “a very, very difficult subject”.

But he had previously threatened to ax it while he was on the campaign trail.

In a meeting last month with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, then-Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly indicated his doubts that the program would survive the challenge from Republican officials, urging members of the caucus to begin pushing for a so-called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

Regardless, lawmakers and migrant communities are preparing for the worst.

Earlier this month, the White House introduced the RAISE Act, a so-called “pro-American immigration reform” bill that would hypothetically halve all legal immigration to the U.S. over the course of 10 years.

The bill has been blasted by migrant advocates, who see it as discriminatory and anti-immigrant.

However, the nativist and white nationalist lobby – among DACA's most persistent and outspoken opponents – have championed the bill.