welcome back this is momentum breaking news former President Barack Obama
called President Donald Trump's decision to scrap a program that protects the
deportation of almost 800,000 young men and women who were brought into the
United States illegally as children, wrong self-defeating and cruel.
Obama created the deferred action for childhood arrivals DACA program when he
bypassed Congress and signed an executive order in 2012. the intent of
the program was to give the so-called dreamers a legal path to stay in the
United States. Here is the complete Obama statement as posted on his Facebook page.
immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a
dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about
how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules but
that's not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is
about young people who grew up in America, kids who study in our schools,
young adults who are starting careers, Patriots who pledge allegiance to our
flag. These dreamers are Americans in their hearts in, their minds, in every
single way, but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents,
sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not
even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they are
undocumented until they apply for a job or a college or a driver's license. Over
the years, politicians of both parties have work together to write legislation
that would have told these young people, our young people, that if your parents
brought you here as a child, if you've been here a certain number of years and
if you're willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you'll get a
chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was president, I
asked Congress to send me such a bill. That bill never came. And because it made
no sense to expel talented, driven patriotic young people from the only
country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my
administration acted to leave the shadow of deportation from these young people
so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our
country. We did so based on the well established legal principle of
prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents
alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited
resources and it makes sense to focus those resources and those who come
illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some
800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements and went
through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.
But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young
people once again. To target this young people is wrong - because they have done
nothing wrong. It is self-defeating because they want
to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military and otherwise
contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid's science teacher
or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her?
To a country she doesn't know or remember, with a language she may not even speak.
Let's be clear: the action taken today isn't required legally. It's a
political decision and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints
Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn't threaten the future
of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who
pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are
that pitcher on our kids softball team, that first responder who helps out his
community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear
the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won't lower
the unemployment rate or lighten anyone's taxes or raise anybody's wages.
It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit and to common
sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists and Americans of all
political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did
today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these
young people to Congress, it's up to members of Congress to protect these
young people and our future. I'm heartened by those who've suggested that
they should. And I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they
step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency
these young people feel. Ultimately this is about basic decency. This is about
whether we are people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America or whether
we treat them the way we'd want our own kids to be treated. It's about who we are
as a people and who we want to be. What makes us American is not a question of
what we look like, or where our names come from or the way we pray. What makes
us American is our fidelity to a set of ideals - that all of us are
created equal, that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will,
that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure our most
cherished values for the next generation. That's how America has traveled this far.
That's how, if we keep at it, we will ultimately reach that more perfect union.
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