President Donald Trump, who launched his campaign with a forceful attack on immigrants, is now the man responsible for catapulting immigration reform back into contention.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the administration would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama-era executive action that protected from deportation about 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children — people known as “Dreamers,” after the failed 2010 DREAM Act.


Immigration advocates blasted the decision as a moral failing on the part of the Trump administration. But they also acknowledged on Tuesday that Trump provided a renewed political opening none of them had expected from a man who barnstormed the presidency by referring to Mexican immigrants as drug dealers, criminals and rapists.

Chances of passing a new DREAM Act remain a long shot, and some Republicans in Congress said Tuesday that they were skeptical that any stand-alone bill granting legal status to Dreamers could pass. White House officials said they hoped to use the impetus to win concessions on a border wall and other priorities.

But despite major hurdles ahead, immigration activists said, Trump has single-handedly revived chances for the DREAM Act, if not for something larger.

The president “has really tossed the issue onto the table — not putting pressure on Democrats, but into the lap of Republicans,” said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of the immigration reform group America’s Voice. “This is not the issue Republicans would have chosen. Trump chose it for them. In a backhanded way, he’s made it more likely that the DREAM Act will be passed.”

Trump acted on Tuesday in response to a Sept. 5 deadline imposed on him by a coalition of attorneys general from across the country — led by Texas. The group had threatened to sue the administration if the president did not take any action to end the program.

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The decision — one that the president “wrestled with,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders — has created momentum for Congress to take action on immigration reform, which stalled on the Hill in 2010 and again in 2013. Trump has given Congress a six-month window to pass legislation.

Hundreds of protesters swarmed the gates in front of the White House and gathered on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower yelling “Shame!” at the administration for rescinding a backstop for hundreds of thousands of undocumented individuals who have served in the military, contributed to the economy, and pursued college plans in the country where they grew up.

But immigration activists conceded that if Trump had instead decided to let the fight over DACA play out in the courts, there might not have been any window for reviving consideration of immigration reform legislation.

In that scenario, “the pressure on Congress wouldn’t have been nearly as intense,” said Sharry. “It would be, ‘Let’s see what the courts do.’ In this scenario, there’s no ambiguity as to who is responsible. It’s cleaner.”

Ironically, it’s Sessions — who for years has been one of the biggest forces on the Hill pushing attempts to kill any comprehensive immigration reform — who’s been part of the brain trust advising Trump to take action that puts the onus on Congress to act.

“The fact that the Trump administration ended DACA creates a sense of urgency for Congress to pass the DREAM Act,” said Tyler Moran, managing director of the DC Immigration Hub. “Republicans are in control of both the House and the Senate, and they need to make a decision if they’re going to be part of the solution, or if they’re going to side with [White House senior policy adviser] Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions.”

Other immigration activists were not eager to see any silver lining in Tuesday's announcement. “Whatever happens in Congress, the notion of using Dreamers as pawns to leverage to pass legislation is a very distasteful one,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the New American Economy, a pro-immigration reform group launched by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

But Robbins conceded that Trump’s move revives the issue, which has been lagging for years.

In December 2010, the DREAM Act failed, with 55 in favor, 41 opposed and four senators abstaining. Only three Republicans voted in favor of the bill that year. In 2013, a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate, only to die in the House.

In a statement he released on Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan struck a sympathetic tone and expressed hope for a “permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.”

But Trump may have set Ryan up not for a test of his own principles, but of his backbone, as he seeks to pass a bill that is likely to be unpopular with the Republican base.

“Speaker Ryan and Leader [Mitch] McConnell know how cold-hearted and senseless it would be to round these bright young Americans up and kick them out of the only home they’ve ever known,” said Jesse Lehrich, communications director for Obama for America. “The administration has dared Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell to summon the moral courage and leadership to do something about it, once and for all.”

