Trump Will Be Humane to Children, Youth in DACA Status

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President Donald Trump will be “humane” in his treatment of immigrants who came as children with their undocumented parents and today number in the hundreds of thousands, according to the White House.

In the backdrop rising anxiety among children who came with undocumented parents and were granted some relief under President Obama’s executive order referred to as DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals), the White House said President Trump may begin discussions with his team on the issue next week. At this time, the President’s priority remains dealing with deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

“The President understands the magnitude of this problem,” Spicer said at a briefing Jan. 25. “He is a family man. He has a huge heart and understands the significance of this problem,” he added.
“He will work through this in a humane way to make sure that he respects the situation in which these children were brought here,” Spicer added.

The DACA program was launched in mid-June 2012, and since then until Sept. 30, 2016, a total of 1,622,921 requests have been received by the Department of Homeland Security, according to latest data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. More than 1.3 million (1,340,305) have been approved, 68,240 denied, and another 119,934 are pending.

The data shows India ranks 12th among the 25 countries and sources of people in the DACA status, with Mexico as the largest source with 1.9 million or so applications from undocumented DACA children and youth accepted.

The USCIS accepted 7,044 applications from undocumented Indian children and youth during this same period (2012-Sept. 30, 2016), of which 6,012 have been approved to date. Pakistan ranks 23rd on the list of top source countries. Children of Pakistani descent submitted 3,433 applications, of which 3,038 were approved in the same period.