San Francisco officials plan to fight for Dreamers, DACA

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to announce the president's decision on whether to end DACA, the Obama-era program that protects young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.

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For months Sessions has been pushing Donald Trump to end DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

White House officials tell ABC News that the president is leaning toward phasing out the program, which has allowed so-called dreamers to work legally and avoid deportation for the past five years.

The fate of the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients would then be in the hands of Congress, which is expected to be given six months to come up with legislation.

"Congress can make it right," said Congressman Mark Desaulnier. "There are bipartisan bills right now. The main bill is Lindsey Graham, a Republican and Richard Durbin from Illinois, a Democrat. It would legalize DACA."

Congress does have the public on its side. Polls show the majority of Americans support DACA.

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"The average people who see DACA students, who see our students here, who see DACA people contribute to the military, contribute to jobs, contribute to the most dangerous and difficult jobs in the country, that they want to see the DACA students stay," said Law School Dean of UCSF John Trasvina.

But Congress has brought up DACA before and failed to pass any protection for the Dreamers.

In which case, the San Francisco Public Defender's Office says it's prepared to fight.

"We're pulling up volunteers on students. We've had lawyers who've come forward and agree to take cases so it's going to be a community effort," said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

This community is pulling together to keep the Dreamers' hopes alive.

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