President Donald Trump rescinded the DACA program so that he could leverage the fate of nearly a million Dreamers to Trojan horse in his anti-immigrant legislation, Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote in a column for CNN.
That's why the March 5 deadline has come and gone without congressional action - the president is standing in the way of permanent protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
The same president who not so long ago talked of a "bill of love," the Senate Minority Leader wrote for CNN.
"It has become increasingly clear that the president's words were nothing but lip service. President Trump and the White House are not interested in solving this problem — they have so far tried to use Dreamers as bargaining chips to push forward their anti-immigrant agenda," Schumer wrote.
"I personally met with President Trump several times to negotiate a solution only to find that hours later he would back away and move the goal posts to the hard right to satisfy his base, demanding an endless list of extreme measures," Schumer wrote.
Federal court injunctions against deportations have effectively delayed the mass deportations that would have kicked in after Monday's missed deadline; it will be 2019 before DACA courses through the legal system, including likely being heard by the Supreme Court.
But it still thrusts DACA recipients in limbo, and new illegal immigrants won't be able to apply for protections in the meantime, Schumer writes.
"President Trump, the ball is in your court. You broke it, you fix it," Schumer wrote. "Until you change course, the fate of DACA recipients is in your hands. The American people will know exactly who to blame if you prevent Congress from getting this done."
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