The future of undocumented immigrants in the United States looks bleak — and that's not because President Donald Trump's chief of staff called a whole lot of them lazy.
John Kelly told reporters Tuesday that he "doubts very much" that Trump would extend the March 5 deadline for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program during an impromptu interview outside the U.S. Capitol, closing the door on the "love" Trump had in mind when tackling immigration. But Kelly's characterization of undocumented immigrants that didn't register for DACA that raised the most eyebrows.
"There are 690,000 official DACA registrants and the president sent over what amounts to be two and a half times that number, to 1.8 million," Kelly told reporters. "The difference between 690,000 and 1.8 million were the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses but they didn't sign up."
It's unclear who Kelly was quoting when he called immigrants lazy, but it is obvious he is expressing contempt for so-called dreamers.
Kelly also told reports that he "was not so sure this president has the authority to extend it" because the program, which protects roughly 690,000 children who were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents, is not constitutional to begin with. The future of DACA recipients, who have been living in limbo since Trump announced he would end the program in September, is even more uncertain now, as Kelly says the program is not based in law. If Congress does not reach a resolution before the March 5 deadline, what's next?
Despite the chief of staff suggesting DACA is lawless, he said Trump's immigration plan is "generous," and couldn't believe that lawmakers would vote against it.
“What makes them act is pressure,” Kelly said of Congress. “If before the champions of DACA were members on one side of the aisle, I would say right now the champion of all people who are DACA is Donald Trump — but you would never write that.”
Kelly's comments come as Congress has to pass a spending bill by midnight on Thursday — or the government will shut down again. So far, it seems that little progress has been made toward a permanent resolution, and another shutdown looms.
In January, President Trump outlined a four-part immigration plan during his first State of the Union address to Congress. The plan would give DACA recipients, as well as immigrants who are not enrolled in the program but qualify for it, a path to citizenship that includes "requirements for work, education and good moral character." It also includes $25 billion for funding of a proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, which Trump said "ends the dangerous practice of 'catch and release.'” The proposal also seeks to protect "the nuclear family by ending chain migration."
In his speech, Trump called on Democrats and Republicans to work together on a solution "because Americans are dreamers too." The likelihood of the parties coming together on a bipartisan immigration plan is seeming more unlikely every day. On Monday, the president blasted Democrats on Twitter, saying, "Dems seem not to care about DACA," and that "any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time."
On Tuesday, Trump boosted Kelly's comments as he tweeted, "Polling shows nearly 7 in 10 Americans support an immigration reform package that includes DACA, fully secures the border, ends chain migration & cancels the visa lottery. If D’s oppose this deal, they aren’t serious about DACA-they just want open borders."
In a follow-up tweet, Trump said, "We need a 21st century MERIT-BASED immigration system. Chain migration and the visa lottery are outdated programs that hurt our economic and national security."
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