Yet again, after President Donald Trump has already weighed in and endorsed a deeply unpopular policy position, the president is asking Congress to fix his mess.
Trump has reportedly been searching for “a way out” of his current legislative dilemma involving the Obama-era DACA law, which protects the children of illegal immigrants and allows them to obtain work and study permits. Instead of fulfilling his campaign promise of rolling back the legislation, he announced Tuesday that Congress would have the responsibility of doing something.
Congress, get ready to do your job – DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has urged the president to end the program, is expected to make the formal announcement later on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Some Congressional Republicans have already spoken out and requested that the president not end the program, but there are others who remain staunchly opposed to the measure.
Trump’s new chief of staff John Kelly came up with the solution to kick the issue to Congress after consulting with Republican lawmakers and staff members, and after Trump expressed that he wanted “a way out,” the Times reported. But the delay puts the decision in limbo and can lead to further problems for a Republican party that has struggled to stay united.
“He’s being pulled in a bunch of different directions, and because he doesn’t have any strong ideological anchor, or deep knowledge of the issue, he ends up sort of not knowing what to do,” Mark Krikorian told the Times. “I think the fact that they did nothing to it suggests that they had no idea what to do.”
Our most important fundraising appeal of the year
December is the most critical time of year for Truthout, because our nonprofit news is funded almost entirely by individual donations from readers like you. So before you navigate away, we ask that you take just a second to support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation.
This year is a little different. We are up against a far-reaching, wide-scale attack on press freedom coming from the Trump administration. 2025 was a year of frightening censorship, news industry corporate consolidation, and worsening financial conditions for progressive nonprofits across the board.
We can only resist Trump’s agenda by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.
We’ve set an ambitious target for our year-end campaign — a goal of $250,000 to keep up our fight against authoritarianism in 2026. Please take a meaningful action in this fight: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout before December 31. If you have the means, please dig deep.