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Dan Stein Published 7:25 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2017 | Updated 13 hours ago

President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

While the Trump administration is busy fulfilling the presidents promise to protect the interests of the American people and enforce our immigration laws, the news media are fixated on the fate of illegal aliens who enjoy temporary protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

DACA was an overly broad and unconstitutional exercise of executive power by President Obama that would likely have been struck down by the courts had it been challenged. In addition to being unconstitutional, DACA also triggered a surge of illegal immigration of unaccompanied minors and families with children in tow. The message it sent was that coming to the U.S. illegally, or bringing children here illegally, would be rewarded.

However much people might empathize with the situation of DACA recipients, we must make it clear that the responsibility for their circumstances rests with the parents who knowingly violated our laws and put their children in this situation. In every other area of law, we hold lawbreakers accountable for any negative consequences to family members, and immigration law should not be the exception.

Early Trump administration actions seem to indicate that the 750,000 DACA recipients will be allowed to maintain their two-year deferments until they lapse, at which point they will revert to their earlier status. The president has pledged to review the situation of this group of illegal aliens but not before making good on decades of broken promises to the American people.

Allowing the program to lapse does not mean that DACA recipients will be targeted for removal, but they would no longer be exempted from enforcement or be eligible for work authorization. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly defined seven categories of aliens who will be priorities for removal. Most DACA recipients would not fall into those categories.

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Most important, by demonstrating the resolve to enforce immigration laws, President Trump is deterring others from putting their children in this difficult situation.

Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a non-profit group that favors more restrictive immigration policies.

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Let DACA program lapse: Opposing view - USA TODAY