#DefendDaca Walk Outs & Protests Grow As #Trump Attacks #DACA

Today, Jeff Sessions speaking on behalf of the Trump Administration, announced that it will be advising the Department of Homeland Security to begin an “orderly, lawful wind-down” of the DACA program.

Originally published by Its Going Down.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of  these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

#DefendDaca Walk Outs & Protests Grow As Trump Attacks DACA

Today, Jeff Sessions speaking on behalf of the Trump Administration, announced that it will be advising the Department of Homeland Security to begin an “orderly, lawful wind-down” of the DACA program.

Since 2012 the program has allowed limited rights to young undocumented people under the age of 16, giving them the ability to attend school and get social security cards. Since its implementation, Nativist and far-Right nationalist segments of the Trump administration have long sought to destroy it, white nationalist groups like FAIR have lobbied the GOP to get rid of it, and Trump campaigned on it’s abolition. Sessions announced that the program will fold in 6 months, giving congress the ability to possibly “fix” it.

While DACA has been touted as a means towards “reform,” in reality it has allowed the Democratic Party to grab a large chunk of the Latino vote while also creating massive lists of undocumented youth – the amount of DACA “dreamers” is now at 800,000. This means quite plainly that those hundreds of thousands of young people could all now easily become targets for deportation, along with their families.

The impact of mass roundups and the general assault on DACA recipients and undocumented people will affect millions of people and the draconian and repressive apparatus that will be used to carry out that project will then be turned on the broader population. This will be made possible by an ever growing ICE agency and the coming together of federal and local police departments which will continue to further militarize themselves with an expansive array of weaponry and technology.

Ironically many predict this nightmare will be an economic disaster, as one reform group projected that mass deportations could cost the economy $400 billion and even libertarian think tanks spell doom. On the other hand, many elites are seeing a boom in both private prisons and the increase of repressive police industries. This tension will lead to a division among the elites, with some wanting to keep the old system of immigrant labor that receives low pay and is un-unionized and another that seems opportunities in mass repression.

People hitting the streets against attacks on DACA should also keep in mind the role of the Democratic Party in the creation of this mass deportation machine. Under Obama, upwards of 1,000 people were deported per day, making for a total of 2.5 million people from 2009 to 2017. Obama also oversaw the expansion of a Bush era program, ‘Secure Communities,’ which sought to unite local, state, and federal police in an effort to deport migrants, and also helped streamline the sharing of bio-metric data between police agencies. Furthermore, it was the push under Clinton for ‘free trade’ agreements like NAFTA which forced millions to migrate to the US in search of jobs.

Thus, those taking the streets today and in the coming months will face off against an entire system based on exploitation, repression, and incarceration. Looking to past struggles, from the mass strikes and walkouts in 2006 which defeated anti-immigrant legislation, HR 4437, or resistance to the Muslim Ban, we can take inspiration. We should lose our illusions that this will be an easy fight however, as in the past several weeks Trump has pardoned Joe Arpaio and ICE has pushed to destroy any records of immigrant death and abuse. But by coming together, organizing, and taking action en masse people have a chance of stopping things, but only by putting our faith in our abilities to bring things to a halt and not allowing our struggles to be co-opted by those who have helped build this prison.