Trump Breaks a Promise to his Voters on Immigration

Jonathan Drake/Reuters

The administration’s decision not to reverse the DACA policy is an announcement that the president played his voters for fools.

During and after the 2016 election, friends in the immigration restriction movement would remonstrate: "Donald Trump is the only hope we have, don’t you see that?”

I’d answer, “He’s betrayed everyone else who ever trusted him. What makes you think you will be special?” And today, President Trump confirmed my dark view: He’s just inflicted near-lethal damage on any hope of enduring immigration reform in the national interest.

The New York Times reports today that Trump will extend indefinitely the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that confers residency and work rights on 800,000 people who illegally entered the United States as minors.

Perhaps fearing the political fallout, White House officials told the Times later on Friday morning that the memoranda issued the night before did not represent a final decision, and that the president might yet resume his previous position. As always with President Trump: who knows? Yet the direction of movement is becoming more obvious.

During the campaign, Trump had repeatedly promised to end the protected status of this group, the so-called Dreamers. In office, however, he had postponed a decision about their status. In the first three quarter of 2017, the Trump administration allowed the program to continue to operate. It issued some 17,000 new “Dreamer” visas and renewed more than 107,000 others as they came due.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.