DACA and the DREAM Act

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

So 45 is repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and a lot of people who were protected by that act will now be up in the air.

Thoughts on that decision or the movement to pass the DREAM act in its wake?

[LittleRaven]

SCENE I. White House. The State Dining Room.
TRUMP sits at the head of the table. Seated immediately beside him, having just finished their meal, is Senate Majority Leader Mitch MCCONNELL and Speaker of the House Paul RYAN.
TRUMP
I hope you enjoyed your meal. That was a Trump steak, that was. Best steak ever made. Can you believe I can get the taxpayers to fork over 300 bucks for each one of these we serve here? It's fantastic. Best deal on steak ever. That's what I do, you know. Make the best deals. All the time. Ever. Like that time I defeated Hillary Clinton. Did I ever tell you about that? It was great. Everyone said I couldn't win, but by golly I...
MCCONNELL
Uh, yes, Mr. President. You've told us this story.
TRUMP
Oh but it's a good story. The best. You should really hear about her emails. Did I ever tell you about the emails? This one time...
RYAN
Yes, Mr. President. We know. The emails. So...is there a reason we're here right now?
TRUMP
But the real kicker, you see, is that I not only won the popular vote, I won it by the biggest margin in history! They love me, they do. Course, the press won't talk about it, all the fake news. It's sad. So sad. Hey, did I tell you guys about this plan I had for a wall? It's gonna be great. Biggest wall you ever saw. People love it. Did you see me at that rally last week? The crowd loved the part about the...
MCCONNELL
Certainly, Mr. President. But we really have to get back to work. We have a debt ceiling issue to resolve, and of course there's infrastructure and tax reform...it's very complicated, and we really have to get back to it.
RYAN
Yes, we'd love to stay, but...so much to do.
MCCONNELL and RYAN stand up to leave. TRUMP abruptly glares at them and motions for them both to sit down. Mood turns dark.
TRUMP
Yes, yes. Much to do. But first, have a drink with me.
TRUMP makes a hand gesture and PORTER enters with 2 wine bottles. He places them on the table and leaves.
TRUMP
So I have these two great drinks here. The best, really. I always serve the best. You get to choose one.
RYAN (nervous)
Uh...ok, what are they?
TRUMP
This first one is great. Base loves it. I love it. It's called "Repeal DACA." Great flavour, full bodied. Really gets the press going.
RYAN (appalled)
But...Mr. President...that's poison! We've been trying to get on the right side of this immigration thing for decades! If we drink that...it probably won't kill us immediately, but we'll never get the stink out. We'll lose a whole generation of voters! We could easily find ourselves a niche party that can only win where the demographics are ridiculously favorable! We can't possibly run this country that way!
TRUMP
I don't like your attitude, son. All the negativity. It's sad. Tired. People want a winner, not a whiner. But it's ok, don't get your feelings in a pinch. I brought a second vintage. I call it "Enshrine DACA." Protects the kids. Make us look like the good guys. Right side of history, all that crap. You'll love it.
MCCONNELL (furious)
Mr. President! I don't care how good it makes you feel...you have to realize that that drink will strike us dead. The base simply will not stand for it. They'll primary us and we WILL LOSE. I've spent decades building up my career in this town. Now you want me to throw it all away just so you can get your name in the papers for another week?
TRUMP
I'm not saying you have to drink it. I'm saying you have to make a choice. The voters are tired of a do-nothing Washington. They want real change. They want me. Hey, that reminds me, did I ever tell you guys about the time I ran against Hillary Clinton? It was great...
RYAN
MR PRESIDENT! We cannot drink either of those! They're both poison! The only logical choice to just to leave things as they are and complain about how Obama did it. That way, we keep our base riled up and we don't look like monsters! This is not only foolish, it's utterly unnecessary! We have so many bigger issues at hand!
TRUMP
Yeah, I thought you might say something like that. No spine. Sad. But it's ok. You don't have to worry about it. I'm here to help you. You see....I had the first one cooked into that steak you just finished eating.
RYAN and MCCONNELL both stare down at their empty plates in horror.
TRUMP
I'd say you have about...oh, 6 months...before it really kicks in. Well, I gotta go. Big party in Mara Lago tonight. You know, I always throw the best parties. Everyone who's anyone wants to be there. I'd invite you guys, but...you know, you're busy.
TRUMP exits stage left. RYAN and MCCONNELL stare blankly at each other. Lights dim.

[The Romulan Republic]

What did anyone expect? Nazis gonna Nazi.

Trump's got to keep his white supremacist base happy, so that they'll riot and commit domestic terrorism when he gets impeached (Trump insider Roger Stone having recently claimed that impeaching Trump would cause an unprecedented insurrection, and that Congressmembers who voted to do it would be endangering their lives. Yes, really).

So... deport 800,000 people, plus their families (Trump apparently says he's going to keep families together, which presumably means deporting these peoples' families too, even though any children they had born in America would be American citizens). Who generally committed no "crime" except coming here (often brought by their families) as children. Who are largely productive members of the work force, including many veterans of our armed forces.

And say what you will, everyone knows that the primary motive is racism and xenophobia.

If force deportation of law-abiding long-term residents on the basis of race isn't "ethnic cleansing", its damn close.

Bernie Sanders had it right when he called this (paraphrasing) the most cruel act by a US President in modern history. I expect and hope that many city and state governments will simply refuse to comply.

All I can say is I'm rather unduly happy about the fact that Mara Lago is about to get smacked by a hurricane. Were I a more religious man, I would likely consider it the righteous retribution of a wrathful God. While I'd rather not see anyone get hurt, I'd be quite happy if Trump's precious little golf resort got levelled to the ground and put under ten feet of water.

[Admiral X]

What did anyone expect? Nazis gonna Nazi.

If force deportation of law-abiding long-term residents on the basis of race isn't "ethnic cleansing", its damn close.

It's actually pretty horrible that you would compare deportation to mass murder. It shows a real lack of awareness.

Bernie Sanders had it right when he called this (paraphrasing) the most cruel act by a US President in modern history.

Apparently he doesn't remember too far back into history, or doesn't consider FDR's interment of Japanese-Americans to be "modern."

I expect and hope that many city and state governments will simply refuse to comply.

Like all those police forces that threatened to refuse to enforce any new Federal gun control laws?

All I can say is I'm rather unduly happy about the fact that Mara Lago is about to get smacked by a hurricane. Were I a more religious man, I would likely consider it the righteous retribution of a wrathful God. While I'd rather not see anyone get hurt, I'd be quite happy if Trump's precious little golf resort got levelled to the ground and put under ten feet of water.

Then you really aren't any different than the people saying the hurricanes are caused by gay people and the country's acceptance of them. Again, there's that lack of awareness.

[Steve]

Generally speaking, I think people probably consider "modern history" to begin sometime after the end of the Cold War. Just as the Cold War era comes after the world wars period.

Although the internment of Japanese-Americans (and some Italians and Germans, it must be remembered) was pretty nasty... I suppose one could draw parallels between that and this.

[LittleRaven]

It's actually pretty horrible that you would compare deportation to mass murder. It shows a real lack of awareness.

Give RR some credit here - he didn't compare deportation to mass murder, he compared it to ethnic cleansing. Mass murder is only method of ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic deliberate removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. The forces applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), intimidation, as well as mass murder and genocidal rape.

It's still a bit on the hyperbolic side, but he is technically correct. And we all know that's the best kind.

[Rocketboy1313]

I dislike the internment of Japanese and German citizenry during WWII, but at the very least you could argue
1) The US was at war with their ancestral homelands.
2) US citizens of German ancestry had already gone back to Germany to enlist in their military.
3) WWII was explicitly a war of race and ethnicity, the idea that people might hold some kind of racial loyalty ahead of their loyalty to the United States, makes a measure of sense in context.

In the context of ending DACA, and the spurring of ICE to deport more people with or without their children, the US is not at war with any Latin American countries. And regardless of the legality of these immigrants being in the US (which is a mala prohibita law, and is not intrinsically wrong) there is going to be issues in enforcing immigration law in this instance.
1) There are many full blooded American citizens of Latin ethnic descent, they will almost certainly be hit by the racial profiling that has been unquestionably endorsed by the President (see the pardon of the good Sheriff).
2) The ending of DACA is the elimination of a program that made those people who are entirely naturalized now without a clear path to full citizenship, a process that is already far too difficult.
3) This will do jack to combat the large number of immigrants that are in the US from the numerous other countries who are here on expired Visas, another process that is in need of expansion and reform rather than the diminishing it is suffering now.

I must emphasize, there is nothing inherently immoral or illegal traveling from one country to another, or working in another country. Countries are arbitrary zones of dominance/governance by a particular government, a concept that grows increasingly obsolete as barriers between trade, travel and communication break down. I do not understand the drive to keep peaceful people out of a country or to expel peaceful people from a country. Holding up, "It is the law" begs the question. It shouldn't be law. It is possible for law to be bad and the expansion and enhancement of bad laws is unhealthy for the country.

[Archon_Wing]

Ridiculous. We are really spending these resources to go on a massive witch hunt, deporting individuals who have committed no crime and thus are being take away for what their parents have done to a place they probably don't remember , and ignoring the social implications of what will happen?

But hey, racist sheriffs that have actually hurt people get to walk free through on an executive whim, so whatever.

[Robovski]

The forced relocation of Natives that is called the Trail of Tears is pretty damn awful for a scale of bad things done by the government, but in living memory the killing of thousands foreign nationals with flying bombs strikes me as worse.

Not that I'm pro kicking undocumented resident foreign nationals out, but we aren't killing them, so it's a matter of scale.

[phantom000]

Trump is like a political drug dealer, nothing he purposes will fix any of the issues he is talking about, it will just make it look like he is.