For many of whom america is the only country they know. This tuesday donald trump is expected to announce whether he will end the Obama Era Program allowing the d. R. E. A. M. Ers to remain in the u. S. , known as daca for short. While candidate trump referred to daca as illegal amnesty on the campaign trail, once in the white house, he promised to handle the issue with, quote, heart. Well now his hand is being forced by first ten and now nine republican attorneys general and one republican governor. For threatening to sue the administration is no action is taken to end daca by tuesday. And despite widespread popular support, 64 approve of daca in the latest nbc News Survey Monkey poll, as well as calls from his own party and the Business Community to keep the program, donald trump may be on the verge of making one of the cruellest decisions of his administration. And joining me now is journalist and founder of define american, jose vargas and maria hosa, host of the latino usa and chris prudham. Thank you for being here. Jo jose, i want to start with you. It started with a text that you sent me where we were texting back and forth which even though i knew that donald trump was thinking about ending daca was sort of shocking to my system because the idea of doing it so suddenly when he is 800,000 young people gave their information to the government and they know where to find them, when you first when it first dawned on you this could happen, what were your thoughts as somebody who is undocumented yourself . And one of my thoughts was thinking to myself, these 800,000 people are intergrated in all of our communities across the country. They are in medical schools, some of them are police officers. Did you hear about the story of someone in houston that is a daca person that helped with the relief effort in houston right now. Yeah. So i thought of all of those stories of all of those people and the fact that the stories, the real personal stories are gotting lost in the politics of this. And it is important to remember this. The government said to them, come, give us your phone numbers and give us your address and give give us pay us, i dont know if people know this. Daca recipients have to pay 500 to the government so the government doesnt deport them for two years. They have to pay that again when they renew it. 800,000 young people in this country collectively paid, what, 400 million so the government doesnt deport them. And that is in addition to the taxes that they pay. To the taxes they pay. Like Social Security. And i want to put up just for our audience how you qualify for daca. And donald trump said he on the wanl to want to deport people that are criminals. You have to come to the u. S. Before before your 16th birthday and be under the age of and reside in the u. S. Since june 15th, 2007 and in school and have a diploma or a ged or be a veteran and some are serving in the military. Note that. You have to have no felonies or significant misdemeanor convictions and not a threat to National Security or public safety. So if you look at just who these folks are, maria, median age is 25yearolds and the age was 6yearolds and 91. 4 are employed and 56 were not employ yd before dack dwrk daca. So they are american kids, jose romero. He is like what i do. Im an american citizen. Im upset about this and cant believe im getting emotional but it is because in fact these kids represent the best, right. They represent the total best. And i think for them, we have to realize it is like, they are dealing with being flood victims. Like right now. But it is a flood that is decided by a couple of men, lets say general kelly, jefferson bow reguard sessions and donald trump. And they are going to be suffering and the words that everybody is using regarding harvey and houston and louisiana is resilience and love and compassion. It is like, and you are going to make a decision that is going to shock these kids lives and change everything for them because of politics. Because frankly donald trump did say this, this was a Campaign Promise and you know what, there are a lot of people saying can you just deliver on one thing. And this may be it. And lets listen to him doing that. This is from my producers on meet the press. This was back on august 16th, 2015 and chuck asked him, spacivicly about the executive order that he wants to rescind which was the dream act and talking about daca. Lets take a listen. The executive order gets rescinded. One good thing you will rescind that one too . One good thing you have to. We have to make a whole new set of standards so you are going to split up families. We have to keep them together. But out but they have to go. What if they have no place to go. We will work with them. They have to good. And keeping the Families Together is you have to deport the american born relatives because if you are deporting the undocumented migrant if you keep the family together you have to deport the american Citizen Family members. And you know what im so upset that i got upset because now i could see everybody is like oh, they get to so upset they are crying. Im upset that i got upset. But the point is that for a young people like lucio romero, there are Real Mental Health consequences they are dealing with. Like what did i do wrong. I followed everything and they are living in this limbo. And i want to say to them, joy, actually, is theyve got you, the doca recipients, you have to find a way to, one, not give up. You have to find a way to totally know that you are going to make it because youve already been raised with the most extraordinary challenges in your life. So you are going to feel sad an mourning and traumatize and you have to find ways to take care of yourself. And i run that is what i do. And you have to realize, if this country doesnt want you, there are many who do. And so do not this is not a loss. And i know jose, this is horrible, because i just i dont want our daca young people to be living in fear. Because they are going to make it. You have made it here, you have you will make it. And that is the kind of spirit that truly is an american spirit. Right. It is truly an american spirit. [ inaudible ] said we are going to do it and you will take that with you no matter where you end up. And dont give up. Because they have all of the employees and neighbors. What will happen now, is that daca, like white supremacists, is out there and everybody is talking about it. So thank you, donald trump, for making daca the thing now that efb is talking about. Come out of the closet, and maybe they will, im not saying do. That but that could be one of the moments. Im glad you brought that up. Because the question now, ive been rereading a letter from birmingham jail which gets me very Martin Luther king saying history will be recorded and this period of social transition the greatest tragedy is not the at bad people but the appalling silence of the good people. Right. And that means all of the teachers, the mentors and employers and the coworker that know that were here because theyve mentored us, are they speaking out . Are they getting uncomfortable . What are they willing to risk . I think toz are the questions where are the rallies right now. I want to bring christopher drum into this. Youve had more than 1800 people sign a letter supporting the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and employers and Silicon Valley and Business Leaders and political leaders and one of the original ten attorneys general, the tennessee attorney general change their mind and say, he doesnt want to be a part of this group any more. What do you say to these 800,000 young people, chris, how do you respond to what youve heard from jose and maria this morning . Well, first ill say this. I think a legal path through a path through legal status is not the same path to citizenship. We have to be very cognizant and let be for a minute and get a word out and lets just say this. We are all compassionate about children and compassionate about a people in general. We are a nation of laws an want to be cognizant and cautious about how we bring people into our country. America is the best country in the world. It is a wonderful nation and we want to be cognizant of how we do that. No one wants to break families apart. The the president himself has said he doesnt want to hurt families. He want tos he wants to do something and that is why he taking this weekend to make the decision. He doesnt want to rush into a decision. He wachblts to take his time and come up to with a with a comfortable solution and we to look at this and say how could we Work Together to have an effort that makes more plause able sense for everyone. Im not sure that a weekend is a long time. But youre saying that the president wants to have a compassionate solution but what he has said in point of fact on the campaign trail is his solution is deport people. And that people need to go. He said, quote, they need to go. They have to go. So im not sure how you square that with the idea of compassion if his solution is to remove people from the United States. Well of course were not going to remove millions of people. That is but if you end daca, then all 800,000 people are subject to deportation immediately. So i think what the president and again i he can obviously speak for himself on tuesday. But what i think the president is saying is lets come with a better the buck has to stop somewhere. We have to draw the line in the sand at some point. Up until now we wont let hard working people that are 35 and 32 years old and just say, hey you have to go and that is it. But i do believe that the line has to start somewhere. We have to draw the line and say what the requirements and change the laws and at the same time. But everything about gacka is abo daca is about requirements. The government has all of the information about the young people. All of these daca, the government knows everything about them. So when you are saying we need to be understanding and clear about who is here. These are all young people and who have not committed any crimes who are in school and are in the army. So im not sure how much more documentations. Do you want to take their blood. And also look, biometric samples. They have to wait a minute. Let me ask you this question and i want to put back up and i dont know if you could see it on your screen. Back up the documents for daca because there needs to be a system. But there is already a system. A requirement in terms of what years you have to be born, when you have to come into the country. You have to have a ged or a high School Diploma or be a veteran. And they go through and they look at look at your criminal background. You cannot have felonies or significant misdemeanor convictions. They do a full background check to make sure that you are not a threat to the country. So all of that is already doing done. What you want bio mettics and blood drawn . So here is also a very strong point. We need to encourage citizenship in america. But isnt that what daca is doing. By no means. It is not encouraging citizenship and i choose my words careful and when you look at the welfare system as an example and im comparing the two, the welfare system, we encourage certain as pecks of the system to stay on the program without any type of concrete assurance moving forward. Wait, im sorry. You you brought up the welfare system. As a what is the that is not related to daca. And i already went through and i said that 91. 5 of these young people are employed and those who are not are students or children and one of things that changed is once daca happened is they became employed. And that is phenomenal. But at the same time one in four americans are not employed so become citizens of america. So look, i have to say by the way, chris because why do we have to worry about them being renewed. And you would like to see Congress Pass what Ronald Reagan did was he granted blanket amnesty for people in the country undocumented and you think we should do citizenship. I think a lot of people would agree with you. And i think again that do you agree with that . Due want to do you want to see blanket citiship for Daca Recipients. If they meet the requirements and if it makes sense. We want them to be citizens. That is just a reality. I have to say, im an american and im waiting for my own country to recognize it. I have to say too, that in this country, as im sure chris and joy and maria knows, in this country laws dont always equal justice. And i think to the young people watching, especially if you have daca, you are you know that your life is more than pieces of paper and more than laws that people dont even understand, even the president. I think it is really important that we remind ourselves, the president has still not made up his mind. We dont know what he will say. And maria, im so happy that you brought up the point of making sure we remember the resilience of people and if anything what defines america which is a question across the kucountry i our resilience and that is what makes america. And america is not something that landed in your lap and is given to you. And joy, so were near time square. Could you imagine if we went to time square and say would you pay 500 so that the government doesnt deporter now the next two years so you could work . And chris, i have to ask you this and i do thank you for coming on. It is not an easy thing to try to defend. Do you think it is ironic that donald trump had promised that he would do a press conference to discuss the process through which his own wife immigrated to this country. That for a while was also questioned. Do you find it ironic that being married to an migrant and somebody for whom there have been questions when she started working in the country and whether she was working legally in the country, do you find that ironic. I think the president is doing the best he can with the sense that he is allowed. His job is of course dynamic as members of congress is dynamic. His wife certainly is an migrant. But he wants to do what he to help he can to help people as much as he can. The reality with daca is this, no one can question everybody is empathetic and we all could agree on that. Some of the people some of the individuals are 32yearold, and 35yearolds and we are saying lets have a more secure path to citizenship. Why even have them have to worry about every two years or even if it is changed every three. That is not enough. Why dont we have a more concrete and direct way. Im still not clear does he support daca. I think he supports [ inaudible ] comprehensive Immigration Reform. Well be back later in the hour. Thank you very much chris for now. And up next, you will meet some american d. R. E. A. M. Ers, stay with us. Four years. You named it brad. You loved brad. And then you totaled him. You two had been through everything together. Two boyfriends, three jobs. Youre like nothing can replace brad. Then Liberty Mutual calls. And you break into your happy dance. If you sign up for better car replacement™, well pay for a car thats a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Livestreat the airport. E sport binge dvrd shows while painting your toes. On demand laughs during long bubble baths. Tv on every screen is awesome. The Xfinity Stream app. All your tv at home. The most on demand your entire dvr. Top networks. And live sports on the go. Included with xfinity tv. Xfinity, the future of awesome. My name is giovani and im 23 years old and i arrived in the country in 1998 from mexico city when i was three years old ive been here for 19 years and daca was introduced right when i was graduated high school. And in may of this year, i graduated with a bachelors in mathematics and i now work for a bank in the Fraud Department and i protect and monitor our citizens money from being stolen through financial crimes. I do believe that my work ethic aan asset to this nation and i dont understand how removing daca is beneficial for anyone at all. The term american should not be defined with a document or the lack of one. It is more so the willingness to contribute to the country and help others out whoever possible and that is exactly what i and thousands of others are willing to do. Well the future of daca hangs by a thread. D. R. E. A. M. Ers have come forward humanizing the conversation with their stories. And joining me now are three recipients, john green, from undoca black and jen park, founder of higher dreams and carla perez. Thank you for being here. Im excited to talk to you. One of the things we wanted to do, jim, is to take people out of the mindset that the issue of daca is just about mexican migrants because i think a lot of people have the stereo type that every single daca recipient came from mexico and immigration is just a mexican and american problem. But it is much bigger than that. Tell us your story. So my parentsa and moved fro south korea when i was 7 and they knew the Education System was more fair and just in the u. S. And i think it is important to understand what you said, that immigration is a human issue. It is fundamentally about opportunity, it is about people coming to the u. S. To improve themselves and lives that they have in the country. So i think that is something that donald trump has failed to do. That immigration is a much broader and much more complicated issue that he seems to report in his rallies. And immigration in general, jonathan, is multicultural. It is from we get migrants from all over the world and the undocumented are no different. We have have stats an i believe these are from a pugh poll and mexican mights make up a dominate percentage and 92 are latino. And but 3. 5 aasian pacific and 1. 9 are black. And you came from panama. Tell us your story. Thank you for the invitation. And for us it is superimportant to understand that immigration is a Racial Justice issue look at that integration of blackness because there is over 565,000 black undocumented folks across the country and some have daca and some of us fall under tps there are also under threat. And that is temporary status. Protecting haitians and others. And for us it is to be able to understand that yes im worried about being undomed but im a young black men in the city of baltimore and there are consequences to that. Could you talk about that. Because one of them is policing. How does it complicate interacing