On Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration's decision to end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive action put in place by President Obama that allowed the children of undocumented immigrants to defer their deportation. While we all expected Obama to be less than thrilled, we now have an official statement from the former POTUS on the matter.
As CNN reports, Barack Obama took to Facebook only hours after the decision was made to slam the Trump administration, calling the move "cruel" and "self-defeating."
His post began, "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."
However, according to the former president, that doesn't excuse the devastating impact the Trump administration's decision will have on thousands of young people who may feel American in every way except legally.
"Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally," Obama later continues. "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 kid’s 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."
Former Vice President Joe Biden also spoke out against the end of DACA, echoing many of Obama's thoughts:
Brought by parents, these children had no choice in coming here. Now they'll be sent to countries they've never known. Cruel. Not America.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 5, 2017
Meanwhile, the Trump administration will only continue to renew DACA permits throughout the next six months and will not issue new ones. They plan to phase out the program entirely by March 2020 — making it extremely urgent for Congress to act to come up with a replacement, fast.
