Congress Fails to Protect Dreamers as Deadline Looms

FEATURING ARUN GUPTA – Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided several Los Angeles area businesses over a 5-day period in mid-February that resulted in 212 arrests. The raids are part of a significant ramping up of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump and came at the same time as the US Senate on Thursday took up and rejected four separate proposals on immigration.

At the heart of the immigration debate is the fate of “Dreamers,” or undocumented youth who were eligible for the Obama-era plan called DACA. Trump canceled the program that enabled them to defer deportation and work or study in the US. Lawmakers have until March 5th to fix the mess that Trump created, which is the deadline that DACA finally expires.

Trump has put forward his own plan for immigration reform that offers some measure of protection for Dreamers at the expense of massively increased enforcement and major restrictions on legal immigration. That plan, embodied in a bill offered by Senator Chuck Grassley, failed to pass.

Arun Gupta, an investigative journalist who has written for dozens of publications including the Washington Post, the Guardian, The Nation, Salon, and Raw Story. He is also author of the forthcoming book, “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction,” and a regular news correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.