The U.S. government is ending a programme that has allowed young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children to remain in the U.S., Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said on Tuesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will wind down the programme known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as participants’ authorisations expire, which could last till 2019.
Sessions determined that the programme, enacted by former president Barack Obama, had illegally bypassed Congress, which must draft immigration legislation.
The White House has been reviewing the programme initiated by Obama in 2012 through an executive order.
Nearly 800,000 people had been approved for the programme, which protects participants from deportation and allows them to work or attend university.