White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday made clear that Congress is on the hook to find a solution after President Donald Trump terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
During her daily briefing, Sanders declined to say whether Trump would sign an extension to the program, which granted legal protection to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children.
Sanders said only that Trump “is hoping to work with Congress on responsible immigration reform.”
A Department of Homeland Security official told reporters Tuesday morning that current DACA recipients whose permits expire before March 5, 2018 will be eligible to apply for a renewal of their protections, but those whose permits expire later will be eligible for deportation immediately afterward.
In a statement on the termination, Trump said his decision would “provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act” on immigration issues including DACA recipients.
“If Congress doesn’t get it done by the March 5th deadline, considering the President’s personal feelings about these DACA recipients, would he consider giving them additional time to get a solution passed?” a reporter asked Sanders.
“We’d like to have confidence that Congress will actually do their job,” she replied. “We’re going to ask that they do that and that they allow us to work with them and be part of that process, but again, if Congress doesn’t want to do the job that they were elected to do, then maybe they should get out of the way and let someone else do it.”
She did not specify who would take over immigration law in that case, though Trump also claimed in his statement that such policy was the exclusive purview of the legislative branch, and that his termination of the program, implemented by former President Barack Obama via executive action, was an attempt to restore that power.
