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“We are going to deal with DACA with heart.”
“We love the dreamers. We love everyone.”
By eliminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program that President Obama issued as an executive order to protect the approximately 800 thousand young people (with an average age of 6-years-old) whose undocumented parents or guardians brought them into the United States, Donald Trump demonstrated that if he, indeed, has a heart beating within his chest, it is composed of hard stone. If this is how he shows his love, we can only imagine how he expresses his hatred.
Obama felt compelled to issue DACA because the U.S. Congress failed consistently to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The program grants a two-year deferment from deportation of unauthorized immigrants under age 31 who arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday and before June 16, 2007.
Prominent business leaders have urged Trump to extend the program since these young people have contributed substantially to the workplace and to the overall U.S. economy
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Contrary to statements made by Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State and Co-Chair of Trump’s trumped-up Voter Integrity Commission, that many DACA recipients, so-called “Dreamers,” are “gangbangers,” in fact, 95% of DACA recipients are either working or are in school. Prominent business leaders have urged Trump to extend the program since these young people have contributed substantially to the workplace and to the overall U.S. economy.
Well, Kobach, tell family and friends who are burying their beloved Alonzo Guillen, 25, who drove 100 miles to Houston from his home in Lukfin, Texas intent on rescuing victims from the enormity of Hurricane Harvey, but drowned as his boat overturned under the fury of the floods, that he was a gangbanger.
Tell the smart and talented university students in Southern California who work to put themselves through school to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones that they are gangbangers.
Tell the courageous members of the military who put their lives on the line every day to secure your freedoms, your rights, in fact, your very life that they are gangbangers.
And tell all the other DACA recipients who are only asking for a chance to achieve what you have achieved that they are gangbangers, as they strive to overcome the enormous difficulties imposed on them in their countries of origin, and by the racism, classism, xenophobia, and nativism imposed on them in their adopted country.
By taking this action, Trump has killed the dreams of the dreamers by putting them under ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement). Though an alleged billionaire, Trump has revealed yet again his moral bankruptcy.
This latest action falls right in line with Trump killing the dreams of trans military service members with his ban on future members and termination of some medical benefits; his contributions in killing the planet and the atmosphere with his deregulation of environmental standards and reemphasis on fossil fuels; along with the Republicans in Congress, in attempting to kill the Affordable Care Act rather than shoring up guarantees for comprehensive and universal health care; and in so many other actions he has taken too numerous to enumerate.
Donald Trump possesses the opposite of the Midas touch. While he sits atop his golden toilet in Trump Tower, everything he touches turns to ash. But remember Donald that Midas starved to death since all he touched, including his food, became indigestible.
Hopefully and finally, Trump’s ever-shrinking cadre of supporters will find his angry words and life-denying actions indigestible as well.
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