With Trump as president, our waking nightmare has no end. After months of coy equivocation, pretending to feel compassion for DACA recipients, Trump’s administration has announced that it will end DACA in six months. Some are alleging that Trump’s hand was forced by the threat of a lawsuit from ten conservative State Attorneys General. Spare us. Since when has Trump backed down from a threat? He is playing a game of nuclear annihilation chicken with North Korea, but we’re supposed to believe that Trump is intimidated by a letter?
The other rationale that has been floated for this act of vile cruelty is that the administration is concerned about the legality of President Obama’s Executive Order establishing DACA. This strains credulity to the breaking point. We are supposed to believe that Trump, who has been violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution since Day 1, who rails against the media in a blatant display of contempt for the First Amendment, is concerned about legality?
Even if the administration were genuinely concerned about legality, there is a strong argument that DACA, which merely defers action on deportation, is a legitimate exercise of prosecutorial discretion by the Executive branch. Simply put, there is no credible legal reason for getting rid of DACA.
In addition to the absence of a legal rationale, the economic impact of ending DACA will be devastating. The Center for American Progress projects that ending DACA will result in a $433 billion reduction in the United States’ GDP over the next ten years. Of course, Trump is unconcerned with what is best for America, as he has repeatedly demonstrated. He is nothing more than a treasonous crony capitalist who views government as a tool for enriching himself and his friends.
Given that, we should view Trump’s decision in light of the following facts: 1) The day after Trump’s election, the stock of private prison companies shot up. (Source: “Private Prison Stocks Up 100% Since Trump’s Win,” by Heather Long, CNNMoney, 2/24/17). 2) One of serial perjurer and committed racist Jeff Sessions’ first acts as Attorney General was to rescind the Obama administration ban on the use of private prisons. (Source: Colorlines, 2/24/17). 3) Prior to the Trump administration, private prisons housed 40,000 undocumented immigrants in substandard conditions at a cost of $150/detainee per day. (“Immigration Detention Quotas cost taxpayers billions,” by T.J. Raphael and Oliver Lazarus, The Takeaway, 8/2/17). 4) The Trump administration doubled that contract to 80,000 detainees.; 5) These detained undocumented immigrants are often forced to work for $1/day (Source: “Former Immigrant Detainees Are Suing a Detention Center For Paying them $1.00 Per Day,” by Colleen Slevin, AP, 6/22/17).
It is clear that Trump’s decision, in addition to feeding the “white ethno-state” fever dreams of basement dwelling racists, is designed to feed the mass incarceration beast with profitable bodies that can be exploited. The choice is ours – DREAM or nightmare. Call your representatives and DEMAND that they pass the Dream Act. Go to unitedwedream.org to learn more.
#DefendDACA
#Notinourname