Trump is poised to give Congress six months to "fix" the scheme that protects non-criminal childhood arrivals to the US from deportation. The move has been criticized by top Republicans an Democrats alike.
US President Donald Trump was expected on Tuesday to announce his plans to scrap a program that protects some undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children.
Attorney General Jeff Session said he would make the announcement on the administration's behalf around 11 a.m. local time.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was enacted in 2012 under President Barack Obama to protect young people from being deported back to a country of which they might have little knowledge or where they lack remaining family connections. In order to qualify for the program, immigrants had to have arrived in the US before the age of 16, have completed high school, and have no significant criminal record.
States threaten lawsuits
The states of New York and Washington have already announced plans to sue the Trump administration should it go forward with its plan to cancel the program.
"The president's action would upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people who have only ever called America their home," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, in a joint statement.
Bob Ferguson, Washtingon's attorney general, said he would "use all the legal tools at my disposal to defend the thousands of Dreamers in Washington state," referring to a nickname for DACA immigrants.
The so-called "Dreamers" account for just a tiny fraction of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
After the announcement, Congress will have six months to craft legislation to replace the program.
The move from Trump comes after nine Republican state governors threatened to launch legal suits against DACA if it wasn't rescinded.
Critics have argued that canceling the program could separate families and send young people back to countries they may not have seen since their infancy.
Many top Republicans, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the ardently pro-immigration reform Senator Tom Cotton, have urged Trump not to target Dreamers when shaping his policies.
es/ (AP, Reuters)
Central American immigrants turn to Mexico
Most migrants to the United States from the so-called "Northern Triangle" of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are staying in Mexico for now — because of Donald Trump's new immigration policies.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
No longer first choice
In a migrant shelter in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique, near the Guatemalan border, a refugee from Honduras says he originally planned to move to the United States with his family. Trump's election has changed everything. "I wanted to go to the United States with my family, but we've seen that the new government there has made things harder."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Lingering in Mexico
Concepcion Bautista from Guatemala cradles her newborn son in the same migrant shelter. She says she plans to head for the United States, but will linger in Mexico to see how US President Donald Trump's immigration policies play out. Her goal is to reunite with her family up north...
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A mere transit country?
…but for the time being, she believes applying for asylum in Mexico is a smarter move. Mexican asylum data and testimony from migrants in Tenosique suggest that although fewer Central Americans are trying to enter the US, plenty are still fleeing their poor, violent home countries, with many deciding to stay longer in Mexico, which has traditionally been a transit country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Tough immigration policies
The Trump administration has pointed out a sharp decline in immigrant detentions in the first few months of this year as a vindication for the president's tough immigration policies. The measures are already having another effect. In California, where farmers usually rely on workers from Mexico to bring in the harvest, many Mexicans are staying away, preferring to find work in their own country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Asylum applications on the rise
Migrants from Central America play football in the migrant shelter in Tenosique. The number of people applying for asylum in Mexico has soared by more than 150 percent since Trump was elected president. These days, Mexican immigrants would rather set up in Canada than the United States.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Human smugglers up the price
One man from Guatemala says the prices charged by people smugglers have risen sharply since Trump took office, now hovering around $10,000 (9,100 euros), up from about $6,000 a few years ago. Migrants sit below a mural in Mexico with the words: "Our demand is minimal: justice."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A new home
With Mexico's immigration authorities controlling migration more assiduously, Central Americans were forced to take more isolated, dangerous routes where the chances of being mugged were higher. "We've gone north several times, but every time it's got harder," says one man, who was deported from the United States in December. "Now, it's better if we travel alone, along new routes."
