US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) said that he is planning to sign an executive order on immigration within the next month that will introduce new measures to protect "Dreamers" -- people who were brought to the United States as children by undocumented parents.
The White House statement came soon after Trump, in an interview with Spanish-language Telemundo News channel, said he is working on an executive order on immigration that will include a "road to citizenship" for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
The DACA programme provides for work permits and other protections for people brought to the US as children by undocumented parents. It affects an estimated 700,000 young people, many of whom are Indian or South Asian descent.
Responding to a question during the interview, Trump said his action on the DACA is going to be part of a much bigger bill on immigration.
"It's going to be a very big bill, a very good bill, and a merit-based bill and it will include DACA, and I think people are going to be very happy," said the president.
"One of the aspects of the bill is going to be DACA. We're going to have a road to citizenship," Trump said. President Trump had tried to cancel the Obama-era programme, but the Supreme Court last month said it could stay in place.
International students in US are between the devil and the deep blue sea
International students worried about a new immigration policy that could potentially cost them their visas say they feel stuck between being unnecessarily exposed during the coronavirus pandemic and being able to finish their studies in America.
Students from countries as diverse as India, China and Brazil told The Associated Press they are scrambling to devise plans after federal immigration authorities notified colleges this week that international students must leave the US or transfer to another college if their schools operate entirely online this fall.
Some said they may return home, or move to nearby Canada.
"I'm generating research, I'm doing work in a great economy," said Batuhan Mekiker, a Ph.D. student from Turkey studying computer science at Montana State University in Bozeman. He's in the third year of a five-year program.
"If I go to Turkey, I would not have that," he said. "I would like to be somewhere where my talent is appreciated." Mathias, a Seattle-based student who spoke on condition his last name not be used for fear of losing his immigration status, said he is set to sell his car, break his lease, and get his cat Louis permission to fly back to his home in Paris in the next two weeks.
"Everyone's very worried," he said. "We have our whole lives here." Seven students from China and Germany who attend universities in California sued Friday to block enforcement, alleging potential threats to their health and "financial calamity."
This time, it’s the tax threat
In his push to get schools and colleges to reopen this fall, President Donald Trump is again taking aim at their finances, this time threatening their tax-exempt status.
Trump said on Twitter on Friday he was ordering the Treasury Department to re-examine the tax-exempt status of schools that he says provide "radical indoctrination" instead of education.
"Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education," he tweeted.
"Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues.
Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!" The Republican president did not explain what prompted the remark or which schools would be reviewed.
But the threat is just one more that Trump has issued against schools as he ratchets up pressure to get them to open this fall. Twice this week Trump threatened to cut federal funding for schools that don't reopen, including in an earlier tweet on Friday. It's unclear, however, on what grounds Trump could have a school's tax-exempt status terminated.
