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Trump's immigration demands leave DACA recipients, children at risk

Donald J. Trump

Fernando Stein

In an effort to push extensive immigration reform, President Donald J. Trump issued a letter early this week to House of Representatives and Senate leaders along with a list of changes that “must be included as a part of any legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.”

This letter comes in the wake of last month’s statement in which Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 6-month plan to end DACA, which would impact nearly 800,000 immigrants between the age of 15 and 36 years as well as their children. Trump’s stance on the previous administration’s support of the program was reiterated in the letter, in which he noted that DACA is “unlawful and unconstitutional” and has spurred a “humanitarian crisis” — a massive influx of illegal underage immigrants, some of whom “would become members of violent gangs throughout our country.”

Additionally, this letter was a direct response to an attempt at accomplishing bipartisan reform in September during a dinner between Trump, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. This dinner, according to a joint statement from Pelosi and Schumer, was a productive discussion that would ensure the protection of DACA recipients if a selection of border security concerns could be worked out. However, upon release of the letter, Pelosi and Schumer quickly noted that the requests made by Trump do not honor their earlier discussion.

“We told the President at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the DREAM Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.

Many of the requirements outlined by Trump explicitly affect the treatment of immigrant children, including:

• Children who are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian should not be entitled to the same presumptions or protections as those who are unaccompanied;
• Legislation determining standard of care for accompanied immigrant children will be passed to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which provides the least restrictive and developmentally appropriate holding environments for children, with considerations made for special needs;
• The definition of juvenile “special immigrants” should be changed to children who can prove that being reunited with both parents is not possible due to neglect, abuse or abandonment in addition to proving that they are a victim of trafficking. This is an update on the current definition, which currently applies to only children who have been abused;
• The power of initial jurisdiction over unaccompanied child asylum applicants should be removed from asylum officers.

Some additional recommendations include:

• Funding and authorizing construction of a wall along the southern border;
• Strengthening asylum standards and enforcing penalties for those who file “frivolous, baseless or fraudulent asylum applications”;
• Ensuring prompt border returns through the hiring of an additional 370 immigration judges and 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys;
• Blocking sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants or cooperative agreements from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security;
• Limiting family-based green cards to spouses and minor children. All other family members will be analyzed via a merit-based system in which skills and potential economic contributions will be assessed.

“The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement. “If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so.”

If DACA is not supported by the federal government, Lua Yuille, JD, an associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, claims that adolescents will be the demographic hit hardest. The removal of the program may result in many adolescent recipients losing their jobs, educational opportunities and access to a driver’s license. The elimination of DACA also of DACA recipients who are United States citizens. These children, who would become a part of a “mixed status family,” may face housing uncertainty, custody issues and the added stress of losing one or both parents.

“All DACA did was create the chance to attend college or work above board. But that is very significant,” Yuille said in an interview with Infectious Diseases in Children. “With that little bit of security — knowing that they would not be caught in an ‘immigration sweep’ — people were empowered financially and/or emotionally to do things like get preventive and palliative health care.”

The AAP has also condemned the removal of this program, with Fernando Stein, MD, FAAP, president of the AAP, calling Trump and Session’s earlier statement “the latest cruel setback for immigrant children, youth and families across the country.” He stressed that many of these children had lived in America for most of their lives and that these families will experience excessive fear, anxiety and discrimination because of this plan.

References:

WhiteHouse.gov. Statement from President Donald J. Trump. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/05/statement-president-donald-j-trump. Accessed October 11, 2017.

American Academy of Pediatrics. AAP: DACA revocation a ‘cruel setback for immigrant children’. Available at: http://www.aappublications.org/news/2017/09/05/DACA090517. Accessed Oct. 12, 2017.

WhiteHouse.gov. Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, 9/5/2017, #10. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/05/press-briefing-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-952017-10. Accessed October 12, 2017.