Donald Trump decides to end DACA: Leaders, media groups from various countries lash out at move

Nearly 8,00,000 young immigrants — including 7,000 Indian-Americans — who were brought to the US illegally as children or overstayed their visas may have their lives disrupted after the Donald Trump administration in the US announced on Tuesday it is ending the Barack Obama-era program that protected them from deportation. The programme — Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA) — was a key immigration reform of the former US president Barack Obama. Trump’s announcement led to a negative reaction from many leaders and media organisations across the world. Obama himself decried Trump’s decision, calling it “wrong,” “self-defeating” and “cruel.” “To target these young people is wrong, because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel,” he said. “What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbour, turns out to be a Dreamer?  Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?” Obama questioned. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also criticised the decision.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also joined 300 tech leaders who had signed a letter last week, urging President Trump to uphold DACA. Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto also expressed regret over the decision, reported AFP. “Mexico deeply regrets the cancellation” of the program known as DACA, Pena Nieto said in a tweet. “The Mexican government will urge US authorities to find a swift, permanent solution that gives legal certainty to the young people of DACA,” he wrote. [caption id=“attachment_4014887” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Donald Trump. Reuters[/caption] Some 625,000 Mexicans are protected under DACA, according to the Mexican foreign ministry. Pena Nieto said they would be welcomed “with open arms” in Mexico if they ended up being deported to the country of their birth, where many have barely ever lived. Mexico has a “moral imperative” to lobby the Trump administration and Congress to quickly resolve the legal gray area, Mexico’s deputy foreign minister Carlos Sada told a press conference. “There is no question that setting immigration policy in the United States is the exclusive role of the American people and their institutions,” the foreign ministry said. “However, our country cannot ignore the fact that thousands of young people born in Mexico will likely be affected by today’s decision.” The issue of Mexican immigration to the United States has strained relations between the two neighbors since Trump took office. El Salvador also said it will defend the mooted law protecting migrants in the US Congress. Between 30,000 and 60,000 Salvadorans have benefited from the amnesty program. “In the coming months, the decision on the future of the DACA program will be before the United States Congress, and it is there we are going to direct all our energies,” Salvadoran foreign minister Hugo Martinez told a news conference. He said he would travel to Washington next week to lobby for the diplomatic initiative. Guatemala, another Central American country that has been a source for undocumented migrants to the US, also decried the announced end of the DACA amnesty. Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an article called Trump’s decision a “cruel and unusual punishment”. Saying that it was unusual for any government to drive away “an unparalleled pool of potential citizens”, the article further said, “But cruelty is the trademark of Donald Trump and, by extension, of his presidency. He was cruel to the point of sadism during his election campaign, when no insult and no abuse were beyond the pale in his annihilation of his opponents. And he was cruel during the campaign and throughout his still-fledgling presidency in his branding of Mexicans as rapists, of Muslims as potential terrorists and of transgender people as unfit for military service.” Even though Trump had earlier claimed that he had compassion for young immigrants, political analyst Rick Tyler called it “baloney”. “Baloney. I would think so, but I don’t think Trump is capable of empathy. He makes decisions based on how he believes he’s perceived. It’s unadulterated populism,” The Guardian quoted him as saying. With inputs from agencies