--- 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: 2026-02-23T17:16:04.120Z 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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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Sep 4, 2017 4:07 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question from a member of the media after signing a proclamation declaring a day of prayer in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question from a member of the media after signing a proclamation declaring a day of prayer in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images 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. ```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":"2026-02-23T17:16:04.120Z","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"}}]}] ```