Fox News reports Trump will end DACA as soon as Friday, White House says no 'final decision'

Fox News published a report today, based on an anonymous administration source, saying the end of DACA is imminent and could be announced as soon as tomorrow.

President Trump, as early as Friday, is expected to announce plans to end the Obama administration program that gave a deportation reprieve to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, a senior administration official told Fox News…

According to the official, Trump is expected to announce the program’s end but will allow so-called “dreamers” currently in the program to stay in the U.S. until their work permits expire – which, for some, could be as long as two years.

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However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday, “A final decision on that front has not been made, and when it is, we will certainly inform everybody in this room.” Of course, the White House might say that even if the plan is to announce DACA’s end tomorrow as a way of preserving the announcement, especially if the plan is to have Trump himself make the announcement.

Last week there were a couple of leaks which suggested this was coming. Thursday Axios reported Trump was “considering” ending the program and then on Friday NBC News reported he was “likely” to end it.

DACA, as I noted last week, was President Obama’s administrative end-run around Congress as a way to deliver something of what he promised to Latino voters. But of course, any program put in place solely by the executive branch can also be taken down the same way.

Back in February Trump said this was a “very, very difficult subject,” one he promised to handle “with heart.” That sounded as if he was amenable to possibly continuing the program in some way. Now it seems he’s prepared to phase it out completely. What changed?

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I’m speculating, but if Trump had gotten a political win on Obamacare maybe he wouldn’t feel the need to be so tough on DACA. Instead, he was part of a failed repeal effort that went on for weeks and was probably casting around for some issue where he could claim a win without having to get mired in Congress. Ending DACA fits the bill. It gives him a political win with his base before he gets involved in another difficult congressional battle over tax reform.

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