I have worked on the immigration issue for almost ten years now. Trump was smart not to tackle the DACA issue at this point because it would hamper his other efforts at immigration enforcement.
DACA was implemented in 2012 by an unconstitutional executive order. There was very little opposition from the Reps. In fact, Cantor was preparing a Rep version of the Dream Act, which was his downfall in the primary against Dave Brat, something I was involved in helping Brat on the immigration issue and making robocalls on his behalf.
Over 800,000 illegal aliens have been given legal status including work permits and SSNs. Many states are issuing them driver's licenses. Polling shows that the public is slightly in favor of DACA. The Dems have done a good job in pushing the false narrative that these are "children" who were brought here by their illegal parents and thus, should not be held responsible for the sins of their parents. The reality is that there is nothing in the Executive Order mentioning being brought here by your parents. You just have to have been here by age 15. You can apply for DACA status up to age 31. It is the reason why we saw this flood of unaccompanied "children" coming across our borders.
The approval rate for DACA applications is more than 99.5%. In addition, Obama instructed ICE not to go after the parents thus expanding the number of illegal aliens immune from prosecution. Trump and Sessions are wise to defer actions on DACA given other priorities. It is also worth noting that Obama told Trump during his visit to the WH that one of things he would speak out against would be any attempts to reverse DACA status. The Dems see DACA as a way to obstruct Trump's immigration agenda. How many Reps do you see calling for the repeal of DACA?
Don’t blame Sessions for the flip on Trump’s DACA campaign promise. Billionaire RINO-backer Steve Schwarzman gets the credit for dissuading Trump from keeping that promise.