White House Phases Out Protection For 8,000 Undocumented Youth In Connecticut
By Russel Blair, Hartford Courant
Marco Verch / Creative Commons
The White House Tuesday announced the end of an Obama-era immigration program that protects some 8,000 undocumented youth in Connecticut from deportation and allows them to work and pay taxes.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which shields young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as minors from deportation — was being rescinded.
“Today Donald Trump crossed a line he cannot come back from,” said Camila Bortolleto, a leader of the advocacy group Connecticut Students for a Dream and a DACA recipient who came to the U.S. from Brazil. “Trump said that he’s giving us six months before taking DACA away — that is not compassion, that is cruel.”
Sessions said the DACA program, which has about 800,000 participants nationwide, was an executive overreach by the Obama administration and that it would be up to Congress to take up immigration policy. No new applications will be accepted, he said, and after March 5, the administration would stop renewing two-year DACA permits.
Connecticut’s Democratic congressional delegation immediately called upon their colleagues to act to protect the so-called “Dreamers.”
“The need for bipartisan action has just become even more urgent,” said Rep. Elizabeth Esty.
