September, 05 2017, 12:15pm EDT
With The Stroke of a Pen, Trump Administration Puts Immigrant Youth at Grave Risk
Today, the Trump administration put nearly 800,000 young immigrants at grave risk of becoming undocumented and being deported. The administration's announcement that it is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative is a devastating and mean-spirited attack on America's young immigrants.
The administration announced the following:
WASHINGTON
Today, the Trump administration put nearly 800,000 young immigrants at grave risk of becoming undocumented and being deported. The administration's announcement that it is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative is a devastating and mean-spirited attack on America's young immigrants.
The administration announced the following:
- The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security has issued a memorandum formally rescinding the 2012 memorandum that created DACA.
- Young people who currently have DACA will be returned to their undocumented status and susceptible to deportation as early as March 5, 2018.
The following is a statement from Beth Werlin, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council:
"When President Obama announced the DACA initiative in 2012, he brought stability to the lives of young immigrants living, learning, and working in the United States. By the hundreds of thousands, these young people have taken advantage of the opportunity to participate openly in American society. They now will live in fear of deportation. The risk that anyone who is undocumented will be detained and deported by the Department of Homeland Security is very real.
"The Trump administration's decision today will have profound consequences not only for the lives of these young people, but for the nation as a whole. DACA beneficiaries are our friends and neighbors and a critical part of American communities. Unnecessarily destabilizing their lives will have a ripple effect across our society.
"While the administration is now calling on Congress to act, today's decision is manipulative and ostensibly uses young immigrants as a bargaining chip. Nonetheless, Congress has no choice but to act to save our kids. We must not squander the potential of this generation of young people who will help write the next great chapter of American history. They need a clear and permanent path forward."
The American Immigration Council, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is a powerful voice in promoting laws, policies, and attitudes that honor our proud history as a nation of immigrants. Through research and policy analysis, litigation and communications, and international exchange, the Council seeks to shape a twenty-first century vision of the American immigrant experience.
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