Because he was too cowardly to deliver the speech himself, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III this morning announced that Donald Trump is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Immigrant rights group America’s Voice: “DHS will immediately stop accepting applications for DACA and will stop renewing current beneficiaries in March 2018”:
In an accompanying press release, the Department of Homeland Security's Acting Secretary, Elaine Duke, will say that no people currently on DACA "will be impacted before March 5, 2018, nearly six months from now, so Congress can have time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions."
"However," says Duke, "I want to be clear that no new initial requests or associated applications filed after today will be acted on."
As immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry tweeted, “Trump doesn't get to be a little pregnant on DACA. His administration is formally ending it today. The ‘delay’ is window dressing.”
The fact is that Donald Trump is ending DACA protections for 800,000 immigrant youth who trusted the United States government with their addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and fingerprints, and is punting his cruelty to Congress when in fact the program is lawful and can be continued. This is the height of cowardice, and the most shameful day yet of his administration.
“No one should fall for the White House spin that there was a modicum of humanity embedded in their decision today,” said Sharry. “There is no middle ground or equivocation when it comes to Dreamers. It’s a time for choosing, and we all should stand with Dreamers in today, their time of need, and push Congress to advance a clean, bipartisan, and permanent bill to extend the protections and opportunities they deserve and we all benefit from.”
