Senator Marco Rubio, a presidential candidate nominee for the Republican Party, said on Wednesday that he would like to put an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that offers protection to young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
The Florida senator ‒ who was one of the Gang of Eight that drafted the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013, only to fail to be put to a vote in the House of Representatives ‒ had previously supported the continuation of the program, which also allows tens of thousands of ‘Dreamers’ to to legally work in the United States, until Congress could pass its own immigration reform legislation; however, he was attacked by members of his own party for what they perceived as an endorsement of the ‘amnesty’ policies pursued by President Obama.
Now Rubio has changed his stance. “It will have to end at some point,” he declared during a New Hampshire event, adding that he would still prefer it if immigration reform was properly enacted by Congress. “But if it doesn’t, it will end. It cannot be the permanent policy of the United States.”
Last November President Obama attempted to expand the deferred action program with the creation of a new program to give similar benefits to undocumented parents of those with US citizenship or permanent residency and extend the two-year work permits to three; however, the programs are currently in limbo after a legal challenge by a number of states.
