White House chief of staff John Kelly said Tuesday that President Trump is unlikely to extend the deadline for work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on March 5 if Congress has not reached a deal on immigration by that date.
Kelly told reporters on Capitol Hill that he was “not so sure” that Trump had the authority to extend the deadline because the program was not based on law, The Washington Post reported.
Work permits for DACA recipients will begin to expire on that date due to Trump’s decision to rescind DACA in September with a six-month delay.
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The White House is “not so sure this president has the authority to extend it,” Kelly told reporters. “I doubt very much” it would happen, he added.
“There are 690,000 official DACA recipients and the president sent over what amounts to be two and a half times that number, to 1.8 million,” Kelly continued. “The difference between 690 and 1.8 million were the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn’t sign up.”
On Monday, the White House rejected a bipartisan immigration plan that extended DACA protections but failed to provide the funding boost the Trump administration wants for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump wrote on Twitter that the deal was a non-starter, as was any bill that did not include adequate funding for the border wall.
“Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time,” he tweeted. “March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!”
Kelly was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss the legislative agenda with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), according to White House legislative director Marc Short.
Short rejected the bipartisan immigration bill by Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) Monday and suggested senators look to the White House framework as a basis for a bill.
“Look at our framework,” Short told reporters. “I think we’d advocate our framework to be the base bill.”