Did Barack Obama Really Use DACA To Grant Citizenship To The Program’s Recipients?

Our weekly check-in with the Texas Truth-O-Meter.

By Alexandra HartSeptember 20, 2017 5:21 pm,

exas Attorney General Ken Paxton says that President Barack Obama used the order for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to confer U.S. citizenship on recipients. Is that a fact? Gardner Selby of the Politifact Texas fact-checking team has the answer.

Paxton has been leading a movement among attorneys general in many states to sue the federal government if President Donald Trump failed to rescind Obama’s 2012 program, which shielded nearly 800,000 young, unauthorized immigrants from deportation.

When Trump rescinded DACA, Paxton hailed the move in a press release, claiming that after Obama conferred lawful presence and work authorization to the program’s recipients, the former president “used that lawful presence dispensation to unilaterally confer U.S. citizenship.”

Hear how Paxton’s claim scored in the player above.

Written by Rachel Zein.