Trump had a very busy Labor Day weekend. When he wasn't telling Hurricane victims to have a good time, he stoked nuclear war with North Korea, threatened to withdraw from our trade agreement with South Korea, threatened to stop all trade with China, and announced that he will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Trump wheeled out living confederate statue Jeff Sessions this morning to make a formal announcement that the DACA program for so-called Dreamers (young immigrants who would qualify for protection under the defunct DREAM Act) will end in six months beginning on October 5th.
Trump’s action, announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rescinds a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The administration presented the move as necessary to show respect for the country’s immigration laws, and said nobody covered by the program would be affected before March 5. [...]
“To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. It’s just that simple. That would be an open-border policy and the American people have rightly rejected that,” Sessions said.
Sessions' announcement was filled with one misleading claim and lie after another just like this.
No one has said we should admit every single person who comes here. To the outrage of his critics, the Obama administration actually deported a significant number of people who entered the country illegal, but his administration prioritized some individuals over others.
Many members of Congress including some Republicans are calling for congressional action in response to Trump's decision, but the reason DACA exists in the first place is because Republicans in Congress refused to act. President Obama created the DACA program in response to congressional inaction to protect contributing members of society who were brought here as children through no fault of their own. Those children went on to go to school, have children of their own, create jobs, and build lives; lives that are now threatened.
Sessions also repeated the thoroughly debunked claim that immigrants allowed to remain in the country have taken our jobs, but canceling DACA means up to 30,000 jobs could be lost every single month. And the consequences of Trump's decision won't wait until March to arrive.
If Trump crashes the economy in the near future, you might say today was the beginning. You can't remove nearly a million people from the economy, all of whom are students or taxpayers, without noticing it. Because you're not just removing them, you're removing their entire lives and everything they contribute to. You're removing their tax dollars, their consumer spending, and their community engagements. And for those with children who were born here, you're removing their support system as well.
Considering the high probability that this Republican Congress will not codify DACA before the March 5th deadline because they're nigh incapable of governing, some Dreamers may begin considering their future plans today. But that will be very difficult. Many of them could face deportation to countries they've never called home. Those who were brought here when they were as young as 3 probably don't even remember their original home.