After trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, President Donald Trump on Saturday offered to extend temporary protection for children of migrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children in a bid to end the shutdown impasse.
Many Democrats, as well as immigrant rights activists, call the plan a non-starter because it would only delay dealing with the problem.
"The things he's putting forward, the temporary status, the temporary protection for DACA recipients, we don't want anything to do with it,” Ali Torabi said. “Especially because we don't want to be in the exact same situation 3-years down the line."
Torabi is a DACA recipient. He immigrated here with his mother and brother 23 years ago and during those 23 years, he has called San Diego home.
“I have an intimate understanding of what it's like to be undocumented in very vulnerable setting, like the border community," Torabi tells NBC 7.
DACA allows children of undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they were under 16 when they were brought to the country and if they arrive before 2008.
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Trump tried to end the program in September 2017 and since the president tried to end the DACA, Torabi's life has been in limbo. It’s created some problems because he's applying to medical school.
"A lot of Universities I’ve interviewed at have been hesitant because they don't know if I’m going to have my status. If I’ll lose my status. If I’ll be employable," he said.
American Friends Service Committee, which advocates for immigrant rights, also doesn't support the plan.
"It's a non-starter," AFSC director Pedro Rios said. "So really as a border community, it's not something that we would want to accept and we're hoping that Democrats also take that line."
Torabi was also hoping for the same thing.
"I hope the Democrats are bold enough to reject it because what he is offering does not really help us," he said.
Trump's decision to end the program is currently being appealed. A federal judge in Texas in August ruled against the president and an appeal is currently making it its way to the Supreme Court.
There are around 800,000 people who are DACA recipients.
