[Church:] Welcome back, everyone. The U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to end the so-called DREAMers program. It protected some 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children shielding them from deportation and authorizing them to work. Thousands have protested the move across the country with students and one high school in Phoenix, Arizona staging a defiant walkout. Just hours after sending his attorney general allowed to make a stern announcement Trump tempered his decision, saying he would visit or revisit the issue if Congress can't fix it within six months. House Speaker Paul Ryan issued an optimistic statement saying this. "It is my hope that the House and Senate with the president's leadership will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country." The democratic leaders slammed the decision one lawmaker saying this.
[Joseph Crowley,  United States Representative:] It is increasing world that we're living in today that these young lives these cultural Americans and their lives would upended in this way. The notion or idea that after six months that DACA program will end that they somehow will have to deport themselves or be deported not knowing their homeland, not knowing their relatives not having visited there since they were brought here as young children or as babies. It's just immoral and unconscionable.
[Church:] Our Jim Acosta has details now on what the president is on doing and who will be affected.
[Jim Acosta, Senior White House Correspondent, Cnn:] With the young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children known as the DREAMers. It could be a nightmare. The Trump administration is terminating the Obama era policy that shielded the DREAMers from being deported. The White House and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are fierce immigration hardliners in the Senate to make an announcement that sounded tailor-made for the president's political baits.
[Jeff Sessions, United States Attorney General:] To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest. We cannot admit everyone who would like to come. It's just that simple. That would be an open borders policy and the American people have rightly rejected that.
[Acosta:] Instead the same president who claimed he loved the DREAMers...
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] We love the DREAMers. We love everybody. We are going to deal DACA with heart.
[Acosta:] ... released a statement, "My highest duty is to defend the American people and the Constitution of the United States of America. At the same time I do not favor punishing children. Most of whom are now adults for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws." Why is the president not some out and make this announcement himself today? Why did he leave it to his attorney general? It's his decision. These kids and their lives are on the line because of what he's doing.
[Sarah Huckabee-sanders, White House Press Secretary:] It's in large part a big part of the legal process. This was being illegal. But I think just about every legal expert that you can find in the country.
[Acosta:] Late in the day the president finally weighed in.
[Trump:] Well, I have a great heart for the folks that we're talking about. A great love for that. And people think in terms of children but they're really young adults. I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly. And I can tell you in speaking with members of Congress they want to be able to do something and do it right. And really we have no choice. We have to be able to do something and I think it's going to work out very well. And long-term it's going to be the right solution.
[Acosta:] The White House is pressing Congress still has six months to pass it fixed to protect the nearly 800,000 DREAMers and that no immigrant in the program will be impacted before March. But for the president decide the DREAMer fix he wants something in return, such as the wall. You're saying that we're going to allow the DREAMers to stay in this country we want a wall? Is that accurate?
[Sanders:] I don't think that the president has been shy about the fact that he wants a wall and certainly something that he feels is an important part of a responsible immigration reform package.
[Acosta:] Democrats are already balking at that questioning the president's motives noting he pardoned Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted in federal court for defying a judge's order to stop profiling Latinos. Not to mention Mr. Trump's past statements about Mexican immigrants.
[Trump:] They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists and some I assume are good people.
[Acosta:] Here's opposition to the president's plan is coming in from all sides from a member of the president's own diversity Council.
[Javier Palomarez, President And Ceo, U.s. Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce:] I am resigning right now from that council. I don't see the point in continuing to try to work with people that clearly don't see this issue the way I do.
[Acosta:] The former President Obama who said in a statement, "To target these young people is wrong because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating because they want to start new businesses, staff or lab, serve in our military, and otherwise, contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel." Now that it's in the hands of Congress the question is, do they have time to fix this.
[Unidentified Male:] Today they say we're up to six months. Calculations of six months is to March 5th, so we plenty of time, right? Not by Senate saying which we don't.
[Acosta:] The Trump administration is not offering much comfort to DREAMers who handed over their personal contact information to the Department of Homeland Security when they receive protection from deportation. Administration officials say that information could be used by immigration authorities if and when they start carrying out this policy. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
[Church:] Some 800,000 DREAMers find themselves in legal limbo at the moment and my next guest is one of them. Ambar Pinto is a DREAMer and also an activist with United we dream. She joins me now. Ambar, thank you so much for being with us.
[Ambar Pinto, Undocumented Young Immigrant:] Thank you for having me.
[Church:] Now we know of course that you were 12 years old when your parents brought you to the United States from Bolivia. What was your reaction when you heard Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally announce the end of the DREAMer program called DACA and just how worried that you feel yourself and all the other young people affected by this decision?
[Pinto:] Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me tonight. As an undocumented immigrant and a DACA beneficiary the announcement today was cruel. There was no necessity to this program has allowed over 800,000 immigrant just like myself to live a life without the protection. We can see that this administration sides with white supremacy once again, and to terrorize immigrant youth that myself and families and communities.
[Church:] So what does this mean for you and all the other DREAMers, what advice are you giving and how do you plan to fight this decision?
[Pinto:] Yes, so DACA had been able to get me really from deportation most importantly and not just driver's license. The opportunity to pursue my career and get a job that pays me from what I'm worth and gives me access to healthcare which everything going individuals to have. Not having DACA will mean that we will again be at risk of deportation, right, 800,000 youth people will be interrupted and their life had been there no more for five years. We, this white supremacy agency is trying to put people like me and my family back in the shadows. But we're here to say we're going to take the street. We're going to have moments to heal together and come together but we will take back to streets and we will win like we have been done before.
[Church:] Does it give you any hope at all knowing that Congress now has six months to come up with legislation that will fix DACA. And President Trump tweeted that if Congress can't do that he will revisit the issue?
[Pinto:] We know that Congress in the past hasn't been able to pass permanent legislative solution for undocumented immigrant families. If President Trump really wanted to protect people like myself he would have left the job he would have let the program intact while Congress would have worked into enacting something. The fact that he just tweeted about this it's psychological abuse because you are messing the lives of 800,000 immigrant youth and not only themselves like me, but my family and my parents, my communities, my friends and my loved ones. So we will fight. We will lobby. We would do everything that is in our power to ensure that Congress understands the importance and the time sensitive how time sensitive it is to act and pass a permanent solution.
[Church:] And Ambar, just finally, why do you think the Trump Administration is getting rid of DACA at this time?
[Pinto:] The administration has been running on a white supremacist agenda since they were trying to since election, since he was a nominee running to be a president. It was the promise that he made. And again, I don't know if he realized the impact that he had on the country on American youth like myself. He's doing it as a promise, he's siding with white supremacy and he's allowing people like Jeff Sessions who has made a career out of criminalizing people like myself, immigrant youth and immigrants as a whole, right, as a whole community. And that's the reason why he's making the decision, because again, once again, he wants to side white supremacy.
[Church:] Ambar Pinto, thank you so much for sharing your perspective on this matter. We do appreciate it.
[Pinto:] Thank you so much for having me tonight.
[Church:] And another young DREAMer is already challenging the president's moving court. Hours after announcement Martin Mattia Vidal [Ph] amended a lawsuit he filed last year. Now he argues the latest decision violates the U.S. Constitution. Eight hundred thousand people will be affected by the end of the immigration program. A quarter of the DACA recipients live in California, New York, and Washington are among several states vowing to oppose the president's action in court.
[Andrew Cuomo, Governor Of New York:] President Trump is talking about DACA and rescinding DACA which is just feeding the beast of bigotry read meat. That's all this is about. And Danny's example and my father's example says you stand up and you fight this fight now because it's because it's easy but it's tough.
[Jay Inslee, Governor Of Washington State:] Well, the president is pulling the rug out from underneath our young neighbors is inhuman, it's unconscionable and it really damages the American dream. These DREAMers are called the DREAMers for a reason. They came here through no fault of their own. They're building our businesses, they're going to college, they're graduating from high school, they're being good employees and it's wrong to pull these dreams away from them.
[Church:] And though President Trump has urge U.S. lawmakers to replace the program within six months Congress hasn't been able to pass any major legislation since he took office. We'll take a short break but still to come on CNN Newsroom, adding insult to injury. DACA DREAMers left with little after hurricane Harvey and now wondering if their days in the U.S. are numbered. Plus, South Korea's president visits Russia with the nuclear threat from Pyongyang high on the agenda. We will go to live to Vladivostok for the latest. And we take you to the Korean demilitarized zone where a long time resident tells us she's the most concerned she's been in decades. We are back in just a moment.