Speaking with reporters Tuesday morning, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly derided Dreamers who did not register for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as “too lazy to get off their asses.”
Kelly was speaking to the White House’s latest immigration plan, attempting to cast it as a boon for immigrants, while it would disrupt reunification by ending family-based immigration and diverting more American taxpayer dollars to “The Wall.”
He also showed doubt on whether Trump would extend the March 5 DACA deadline that will mark the official termination of the program, despite the president previously suggesting that he would do so if Congress had not reached a solution by that time. Politico writes:
As for extending the deadline unilaterally, which Trump had hinted at in the past, Kelly said “I doubt very much” that the president can do so because the program was created by President Barack Obama in a way that the current administration believes is against the law.
Though Trump and friends are attempting to wash themselves clean of the DACA mess they have created, immigrants and their advocates will take them to task for consistently failing to match their words with their actions.
Let us not forget it was Trump that ended DACA, throwing the ball in the court of an already deadlocked Congress. For him to believe that meaningful immigration reform would suddenly manifest after decades of stalemates, in the context of a nation more politically divided than ever, is nothing short of delusional.
As always, it is important to emphasize that thousands of Dreamers have already suffered the loss of their protections, after many were unable to renew their applications, leaving them in legal limbo. Each day, an estimated 122 Dreamers lose their status, with more than 16,000 who have already lost their DACA protections.
