Our local state representative issued a statement yesterday in response to the Trump Administration’s announcement that it will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). DACA is the immigration policy founded by the Obama administration in June 2012 that shielded young immigrants from deportation who were brought to the United States illegally by their parents. Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley said, “If today’s decision by the President to abandon DACA doesn’t force Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, I don’t know what will. Much like the children of the immigrants who built this country, these children followed their parents to America and to send them home would mean sending them to a country they’ve never known. These are our neighbors. They attend our schools, they speak English, they pay taxes and they played by the rules. America should not be in the business of deporting children who came to this country through no fault of their own.”
