A new bipartisan group is trying to protect Dreamers in the event that President-Elect, Donald Trump tries to rescind the executive orders on immigration reform issued by President Barack Obama during his time in the White House. Marco Rubio, one of the Gang of Eight who created legislation for immigration reform that passed the Senate only to stall in the House of Representatives in 2013, says he is not involved in this effort.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals plan was established by President Obama in 2012. The scheme protected up to 740,000 undocumented immigrant youths who came to the US as minors. But, President-Elect, Donald Trump has said that he intends to rescind the program on his first day as the new President, next year.
Rubio says that he does not believe in the retroactive removal of the protected status. But, he stated on Friday, that he nonetheless does not intend to become part of the effort headed by Senator, Lindsey Graham to protect those undocumented immigrants who are currently covered by DACA. Rubio says that further renewal of that status is now unlikely, but that means there is some time to work through modernizing the legal immigration system and dealing with border security.
Graham, who says that the young Dreamers should not be punished, let alone deported, for a situation not of their own making. He is working with Senator, Dick Durbin, to come up with legislation to protect Dreamers.