have an argument to make here? look, they are preempting a decision, the justice department before defended the daca program and absolutely could have here. this is a question of prosecutorial discretion, even defending the muslim ban, executive authority over immigration policies. and so they absolutely could have and should have defended the daca program. and they are being bullied by states attorney general. this was entirely a creation of the trump administration, this crisis. they did not have to be put themselves into the situation and now congress needs to act. they should not wait for six months. there are 800,000 people s lives at risk and congress should pass the dream act. the concern now is that the trump administration is going to try to use the dreamers as bargaining chips to try to say that congress won t enact or shouldn t enact daca legislation to protect the 800,000 without funding the border wall. there s a deeply anti-i am
for. they were able to get better paying jobs than they were in and some bought the first car and better job with better working conditions and some bought their first home. the point is you know who they are, if they commit a crime they have to leave. they pay taxes but don t can t claim government benefits. it s the argument about the legality is a separate one and important one. the argument about the economy, which so many people have made they are a drain on the economy, that becomes harder to prove. california is the seventh largest economy in the world, okay? california has more daca participants than any other state. the impact on gdp would be in the billions. let s bring in a white house correspondent kristen welker in the room with attorney general jeff sessions. you know, it seems that from what we understand the president s own staff was divided on the dreamers program but for jeff sessions, this is his brand and exactly what he wants. reporter: absolutely. you
began in 2012, which means you might be up to 36 right now. and your deferral from deportation last two years, you can apply for renewal as long as you absolutely did not commitny crimes during that period and generally speaking you have to be in school or working or in the military. here s where they mostly live. colorado has the largest proportion in the united states and population of dreamers, 223,000. texas has 221,000. we ll talk about that later this hour. florida, 33, arizona, 28 and north carolina 27, georgia 24 and new jersey 22. here s what they are. i think this part is really important, because of the conditions of daca, you have to be working or in school. 95% are working or in school. that s a much higher proportion than the general population. you re exactly the kind of immigrants one would be looking
of 180 miles per hour. look at that thing go. when you look at the map, cuba and hispaniola is just the northern part of haiti. they are still recovering from the cholera outbreak that happened last year after a storm. the most models showing the eye of the storm will pass between florida and cuba but south florida is within the cone of concern. meaning the storm could make landfall anywhere in that area that includes miami ft. lauderdale and palm beach and florida keys. right now sustained winds are topping 180 miles per hour with even higher gusts. we re going to have a full forecast and the latest from puerto rico s governor who is joining us coming up. also now, breaking news, we re awaiting attorney general jeff sessions, let s listen in right now. to announce that the program known as daca that was effect waited under the obama administration is being
layout the legal argument for this. he didn t get into the politics, what you guys were just talking about, the very thorny difficult issue of rescinding daca. what we heard from the attorney general was a legal defense of this decision and he said of course the administration is going to delay any action for six months giving congress time to come up with a fix. the administration deeply divided. the president himself was deeply divided because this is a difficult issue. you have a fierce backlash mounting from those on the left and right. those on the left say this is unfairly treating model immigrants, what you re just mapping out. these are folks who are young and getting educated and tr contributing to the economy. on the other hand you have the far right base saying he ran on a campaign pledge to end daca immediately. they say this doesn t go far enough. they are accusing the president of effectively kicking the can down the road and they are