Today, President Trump has chosen to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee strongly opposes the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA and put the lives of nearly one million young people in jeopardy.
“Killing DACA is more than just a brutal wakeup call to almost a million ‘Dreamers,’ it is a wakeup call to the world that America is willing to cast away its own children because of the actions of their parents,” says Samer Khalaf, ADC President. “Congress must act to extend DACA and show that this country stands by all its people, regardless of how they got here,” Khalaf added.
DACA, instituted by the Obama administration in 2012, allowed undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors and who met certain standards to receive two years of deportation deferral, eligibility to obtain work permits and the opportunity to seek an education.
Ending DACA will have an immense negative impact on Dreamers, but also on the communities they live in, schools they attend and industries in which they work. Losing Dreamers means losing a piece of America as we know it. ADC believes that immigrants who come to this country and work hard to live their American Dream should be praised and accepted with open arms.