In the News

President Trump is prepared to end a program that has protected 38,000 undocumented San Diego residents who came to the United States as children, according to Fox News.

  
 

The network is reporting that Trump will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on Friday, leaving some 800,000 people nationally eligible for deportation.

An estimated 200,000 people in California are protected by the program, which covers individuals brought to the United States before their 16th birthday.

Those in the DACA program receive two-year permits. Most are working or in college. Many know only of life in America and speak only English.

During the election campaign, Trump promised to end the program, but has since wavered, saying the so-called “Dreamers” group “shouldn’t be very worried. I do have a big heart.”

Conservative media has labeled the program “amnesty.” In February, right-wing columnist Ann Coulter tweeted that “there is not one ‘dreamer’ Americans will be sorry to lose.”

Rep. Scott Peters on Thursday urged Trump not to end the program, saying that doing so would be an “economic and moral debacle” for the United States.

“Ending DACA would be an economic and moral debacle,” he said. “It wouldn’t make us safer or fix our broken immigration system — only comprehensive immigration reform can do that. Ending DACA would only rip families apart and shoot our economy in the foot.

Peters said 645,000 of those in DACA are employed and their deportation would hurt many small businesses.