--- title: DACA: Donald Trump Puts Dreamers' Fate on Congress description: By including a six-month delay before the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, Trump gave Congress a narrow window. canonical: https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-04T04:07:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:32:38.598Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Congress Will Decide Dreamers' Fate og:description: President Trump gives them six months. og:url: https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf42457b83a2cca7/6988dc4dcf40a839d1c493ae/gettyimages-841638090.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Declares Sunday A National Day Of Prayer For Hurricane Harvey Victims og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Congress Will Decide Dreamers' Fate twitter:description: President Trump gives them six months. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf42457b83a2cca7/6988dc4dcf40a839d1c493ae/gettyimages-841638090.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Congress Will Decide Dreamers' Fate > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=40d2bd1c-5a34-4dde-bdff-4a5e18f053d7&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Undocumented Youths Are Sharing Their Stories Online in Protest [Watch (HLS stream): Undocumented Youths Are Sharing Their Stories Online in Protest](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4kHKhoxO.m3u8) (2:00)  _Published 2017-08-30. While the Trump Administration considers the future of an Obama-era program that has allowed over 800,000 undocumented youth to live freely in the U.S., immigrants and their allies are taking to the streets in protest._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 4, 2017 4:07 AM UTC by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 4, 2017 4:07 AM UTC President Trump’s announcement that he will [rescind an Obama-era executive action](http://time.com/4926278/trump-daca-dreamers-immigration/) providing legal protection to people brought to the U.S. as children has all the appearances of a final decision. But it’s actually just an opening bid. By including a six-month delay before the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, Trump gave Congress a narrow but achievable window to spare the Dreamers. There are signs that Republicans in Congress may want to prevent the deportation of nearly 800,000 individuals who have taken advantage of the program to [get drivers licenses, go to college and launch careers](http://time.com/daca-dream-act-jose-antonio-vargas-time-cover-revisited/). Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other leading Republicans publicly urged the White House to maintain the program, and Trump said in the past that he would find some accommodation for Dreamers. “We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” he [told TIME](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/) in 2016. The fate of the program had been the subject of intense internal debate at the White House in recent months, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions arguing it was not legally justified. A White House official indicated that view prevailed, saying that while Trump agrees with the program’s outcome, he objects to the way it was done. President Obama announced the DACA program in 2012 as he was running for a second term. The notion of allowing people brought to the U.S. as children to stay has been proposed in various bills on Capitol Hill for years—and enjoys [nearly two-thirds support](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/poll-most-oppose-trump-s-pardon-ex-sheriff-arpaio-booting-n797526) among the public in polls—but it’s never been able to garner the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a filibuster. The congressional pressure also comes as Republicans face deadlines to fund the government, enact tax reform, raise the debt ceiling and help victims of Hurricane Harvey. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I am one of the 800, 000 DACA recipients who's lives right now is under attack by the administration. Meaning there are also 800, 000 stories to explain why we need to defend DACA. DACA has opened doors of opportunity that not only have bettered our lives. But have made a great contribution to the United States economy. Standing strong, we are undocumented, unafraid, and here to stay. DACA has given me an identity to come out of the shadows. DACA has given me emotional, and financial stability. DACA has helped me graduate from college. DACA has helped me now attend grad school. DACA has helped me become a home owner, and I'm ready to do this fight for both of my kids. I marched today because immigrant youth will have the privilege of working with every single day are some of the most inspiring and talented people that I know. And because white people like me need to show up and show that we're allies in the fight. Again white supremacy and the attacks on immigrant communities. We're marching because we want to let President Trump that we're here to stay and we want to defend DACA, the program that grants [ INAUDIBLE ] permits to nearly 1 million [ UNKNOWN ] immigrants like myself. If DACA were to end, I will probably lose my job And the bachelor's degree that I'm working so hard towards getting will not have any value, because I will not be able to legally work and better serve my community. DACA has changed my life in many ways. I was able to get a driver's license. I was able to get a good job and pay for tuition. But the best benefit out of DACA is that I was able to travel back to Mexico and visit my family after years of separation. Today, I march, not only to defend DACA, but to tell president Trump that we're not going back into the shadows, that we're going to be louder than ever. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/"},"headline":"Why Congress Will Decide Dreamers' Fate","datePublished":"2017-09-04T04:07:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:32:38.598Z","description":"By including a six-month delay before the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, Trump gave Congress a narrow window.","url":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/","keywords":["Congress","White House","Immigration","Donald Trump","dreamers"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf42457b83a2cca7/6988dc4dcf40a839d1c493ae/gettyimages-841638090.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf42457b83a2cca7/6988dc4dcf40a839d1c493ae/gettyimages-841638090.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Declares Sunday A National Day Of Prayer For Hurricane Harvey Victims","caption":"President Trump Declares Sunday A National Day Of Prayer For Hurricane Harvey Victims","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/","name":"Why Congress Will Decide Dreamers' Fate"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Undocumented Youths Are Sharing Their Stories Online in Protest","description":"While the Trump Administration considers the future of an Obama-era program that has allowed over 800,000 undocumented youth to live freely in the U.S., immigrants and their allies are taking to the streets in protest.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4kHKhoxO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-08-30T21:11:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4kHKhoxO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/","duration":"PT2M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4926294/daca-dreamers-trump-congress/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```