Barack Obama, quite possibly the final President of the United States, shared an impassioned statement condemning that chump from the Apprentice's decision to halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Tuesday. The "self-defeating" decision, Obama reminded us, doesn't only affect Dreamers.
"Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked 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," Obama said. "And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill. That bill never came."
The idea of forcing "driven, patriotic young people" out of the country "made no sense," Obama added, so his administration took a different route. They lifted what Obama calls the "shadow of deportation" from these young people, a shadow that Trump's decision has reinstated.
"To target these young people is wrong—because they have done nothing wrong," Obama said Tuesday. 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?" Read Obama's statement in full here.
Following Tuesday's DACA announcement from the garbled mouth of Jeff "Make America Alabama Again" Sessions Tuesday, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Javier Palomarez announced during a live HLN interview that he was immediately resigning from Trump's diversity council. "There is no letter," he said. "This is it. This is the resignation. You know, I tried to work as hard as I could with this administration on this issue. And I continue to want to work with them on other issues, like tax reform, like healthcare reform, and so many other important things, but I really don't see the logic in doing what we're doing right now."
Trump's DACA decision has also been met with immediate protest, including a student walkout in Denver and a crowd outside the White House.
"It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country," House Speaker Paul Ryan, a.k.a. Mr. Complicity, later said of the decision.
