Some Republicans have contemplated those potentially searing depictions and worry they could provoke an outcry that would dwarf this weekend’s response to the new restrictions. It is a chief reason they are anxious about precipitately moving forward with any effort to undo the Obama administration’s program to grant relief to the so-called Dreamers: tens of thousands of younger unauthorized immigrants who participate in a program that allows them to remain in the United States, attend school, receive driver’s licenses and hold jobs without the threat of deportation.
The weekend tumult was over a few hundred people who were being denied entry as refugees from violence across the Middle East, as well as over some legal residents who were being barred from returning. Any Trump administration effort to overturn the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative and then deport participants could ensnare almost 800,000 people who are deeply enmeshed in communities, churches and campuses across the nation.
“After this weekend, if they go after Dreamers, they are going to be going after the best-known, most popular and most beloved immigrants in America,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group…
Some Republican hard-liners and anti-immigration groups are already clamoring for Mr. Trump to follow through on his DACA commitment.
Any failure to do so will probably provoke an uproar of its own from unhappy Trump supporters. Not to mention that the president can count leading opponents of the program among his closest advisers.
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