Black Alliance Infuriated by the Trump Administration’s Termination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

NEW YORK, NY – This morning Attorney General Sessions announced that the Trump Administration will rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allowed 800,000 immigrant youth to live, work and remain in the United States without the constant fear of deportation. Established in 2012, the program has transformed the lives of young people, including thousands of Black immigrants, bringing stability, along with economic and educational opportunities to marginalized families and communities. read more

Introduction

“An executive order is an official document signed by the president that declares government policy. In an executive order, a president is giving instructions to government agencies and departments about how to operate in a certain area. An executive order is legally binding … Executive orders cannot reverse a law passed by Congress. Limited in scope, their sweep isn’t as broad as a piece of legislation.”1 read more

Last week, the new White House Administration issued several Executive Orders targeting immigrants for deportation and increasing the forces of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and giving them more power to capture, detain and deport immigrants.

In particular, refugees and visitors from seven countries, including the African nations of Libya, Sudan and Somalia have been barred from entering the United States and the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program (ORR) has been suspended for 90 days, with some countries, including Syria, suspended indefinitely. read more

For Black immigrants, life in the U.S. can feel like living on thin ice. On a daily basis, our communities face criminalization, police brutality, mass incarceration, deportation, and detention. For many, these challenges began twenty years ago with the passage of the “1996 Immigration Laws.” The 1996 laws broadened and fast-tracked the detention, and deportation, of Black, Brown, immigrant, and poor communities, and along with other egregious policies passed during the mid-90’s, resulted in the U.S. mass incarceration and immigration enforcement systems becoming the largest in the world. read more