Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday that servicemen and women who are protected from deportation by an Obama-era program set to expire on March 5 will be ‘protected’ regardless of their immigration status.
The Pentagon chief told reporters that he had spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the roughly 800 members of the U.S. military whose status was thought to be in limbo.
People who are on active duty or serve in the reserves won’t be targets for deportation, he said, adding that veterans with honorable discharges would also be guaranteed safe harbor in the U.S., along with new recruits who are ‘signed up and they’re waiting to go into boot camp.’
Only a judge could override that order, Mattis explained, if a ‘DREAMer’ committed a serious felony or was subject to a final deportation order.
Defense Secretary James Mattis says the Department of Homeland Security has assured him that DREAMers who serve in uniform won’t be deported
President Trump is set to end the DACA program in March 5; it protects illegal immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States as minors
‘They’re just like any other citizen in terms of they’re responsible for anything that they – any misbehavior proven in a court of law,’ Mattis cautioned, saying that the Trump administration doesn’t ‘have veto authority over a court.’
‘They are not subject to deportation unless they committed a felony or a federal judge has ordered them out for some reason, in which case we have to obey the court order,’ he said.
Mattis told reporters that extending DACA protections to military officers and enlisted personnel has ‘always been the case,’ but he has taken actions to ‘make certain we don’t have any more problems.’
Mattis, pictured with President Donald Trump on January 18 at the Pentagon, oversees about 800 DREAMers who are current or past servicemen and women
President Barack Obama decreed DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, in 2010 as a way to protect illegal immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States as minors.
‘They’re protected,’ he said of DACA beneficiaries, adding that ‘you can sign up right now, as I understand.’
The White House has shown no sign of relenting on the program’s March 5 sunset date, putting pressure on Congress to ratify it in a law that also includes his other immigration priorities.
Trump wants tens of billions of dollars to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, along with an end to a ‘diversity visa lottery’ program and restrictions on visa sponsorship for relatives of green-card holders