It’s unclear how Donald Trump’s tweet that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients “have nothing to worry about” for the next six months happened, but honestly, who cares. The issue here is that Donald Trump’s tweet reassuring DACA recipients isn’t reassuring anyone.
Just how many times have we heard him saying that his immoral, mass deportation force is targeting only “bad hombres” for arrest, just to hear about nurses getting torn from their families? And now Trump is appearing to reassure immigrant youth that they’ll be safe, despite the fact that he’s the one tearing up their DACA in the first place? What happens a day after the six months are over? After all, DHS already confirmed the personal information of DACA recipients will be available to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if ICE requests it.
And as DACA recipient Juan Escalante noted in response to Trump’s tweets, his words mean little when the administration has already been targeting immigrant youth protected by DACA:
“If Congress doesn't act on DREAM Act,” Escalante tweeted, “and my DACA expires, will a printed copy of Trump's tweet protect me from ICE?”
Escalante goes on to share stories of other DACA recipients and immigrant youth targeted by ICE:
DACA recipients and immigrant youth don’t need false reassurances, they need congressional action—and that means the DREAM Act.
Joan McCarter reported that both House and Senate Democrats are united behind immigrant youth in support of the bipartisan legislation, but it’s Republicans who control Congress and the White House, and if they want to put meaning behind the nice words they’ve put out about immigrant youth during the past few weeks, they must bring the DREAM Act up for a vote. These are real lives here. They need action.
Keep up the pressure and call your member of Congress to demand a vote by clicking here, and click here to sign the petition stopping ICE from accessing the personal information of DACA recipients.