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'Dreamers,' Democrats Rally Behind DACA as US Top Court Mulls Program's Fate

Reuters

   WASHINGTON - Immigrants known as "Dreamers" and senior Democrats
   rallied behind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
   program on Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to let
   President Donald Trump end it.

   Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse on a gray and
   chilly morning to show their support for the "Dreamers," immigrants who
   were brought to the United States illegally or overstayed a visa as
   children.

   DACA, launched in 2012 by Democratic former President Barack Obama,
   provides roughly 661,000 such immigrants with deportation protection
   and work permits. Trump, a Republican known for his hardline
   immigration policies, announced plans in September 2017 to phase out
   DACA, but was blocked by lower courts.

   Demonstrator Anel Medina, a 28-year-old DACA enrollee and oncology
   nurse at Penn Medicine in the Philadelphia area, said the program
   changed her life. She was born in Mexico City, and her mother brought
   her to the United States at age 5. She was a college student and living
   without legal status when DACA was created in 2012.

   "I was able to get a job ... finish nursing school," she said. "It was
   the moment I was waiting for."

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