Civil liberties groups denounce Trump decision to phase out DACA

LegalProtestsWashington
Sept. 5, 2017, 9:56 a.m.

‘Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds’: Civil rights groups denounce DACA decision

Melissa Etehad

Civil liberties groups denounced President Trump’s decision Tuesday to phase out DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“After equating neo-Nazis with anti-racist protesters and pardoning Joe Arpaio, we didn’t need any more proof of the malignant bigotry at the heart of President Trump’s agenda,” said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in Montgomery, Ala.

“Many, perhaps most, of these young people know no other home. They’re Americans. Now, to appease his white nationalist supporters, he wants to throw them out of their country,” he continued. “Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds.”

The DACA program protected from deportation at least 800,000 people brought into the country illegally as children. The White House decision to phase out the program means the future for many of these people, also known as Dreamers, is now in limbo.

“Today is a cruel day for Dreamers, our families and all Americans,” said Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union. “There is no humane way to end DACA before having a permanent legislative fix in place. We’ll hold President Trump accountable and others who have made today a dark day in our nation’s history”