Biden’s victory gives a reprieve for DACA recipients, but advocates for Dreamers say congressional action is what’s really needed.
Joe Biden’s victory promises a reprieve for the hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers who have benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. President Trump tried to end DACA, a program established by former president Obama in 2012 to provide certain young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children protection against deportation and the ability to legally work.
Biden has pledged to reinstate DACA, and The Washington Post reported he’s planning on signing an executive order to that effect immediately after taking office on Jan. 20. Early on the morning of Election Day, at 12:28 a.m., he tweeted his support of Dreamers: “Dreamers are Americans — and it’s time we make it official.”
Trump first tried to end the DACA program in 2017, but his decision was blocked by multiple federal courts. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in ending the program and said the decision to end it must be vacated.