Statement from Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven on Trump Betrayal of Dreamers

“While people of all races, faiths and immigration statuses in Texas have united to help their neighbors and save their communities from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Trump is doubling down on his white supremacist and divisive agenda. His decision to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is cruel and serves no other purpose but to score cheap political points. Our nation has benefited from the 800,000 Dreamers enrolled in DACA who have seized the opportunity to contribute to their communities and our economy in myriad ways. Taking DACA away will push generations of talent and promise into the shadows and destroy families and communities by turning good and hardworking people into criminals overnight to be hunted, incarcerated and deported. Ripping human beings away from their families and the only home they know to drop them in countries that are a faint memory, at best, is barbaric. 

“This move comes on the heels of Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio, who bragged about running a ‘concentration camp’ to incarcerate Latinos he illegally profiled and detained, as well as his defense of the white supremacists responsible for the lethal violence in Charlottesville. Trump’s message is clear: Make America White Again.

“Trump has betrayed Dreamers, to who he promised to ‘show great heart’. It is now up to Congress to have the courage and decency that Trump clearly lacks, to fix this.

“We stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities, including the estimated 75,000 LGBT Dreamers and pledge to help defend them.