Save me the excuses. I mean it – I am tired of hearing the Trump administration spew bogus explanations for Trump’s bigoted agenda. After announcing his intention to terminate the DACA program in six months, Trump received mass backlash from members on both sides of the aisle. Trump aimed to deflect criticism by making claims such as “the act was unconstitutional” and enlisting Attorney General Jeff Sessions to smear DACA recipients by painting them as a danger to American communities. The administration also stressed that we are a nation based on law and order – whatever that means.

Here’s a message for President Trump: cut the bulls**t. The majority of Americans are not fooled by your excuses, and it is not difficult to see your true motivations.

Who among us is so naive as to believe that Trump’s DACA decision was based upon the constitutionality of the act? When we consider Trump’s campaign rhetoric and hard-line immigration approach, it is clear that this is a decision aimed to further ignite Trump’s core base. By announcing his plan to end DACA, Trump is taking a direct shot at undocumented immigrants, Barack Obama’s legacy and even the sizable portion of the Republican party that acknowledges immigrant children should not suffer because of the decisions of their parents. All of this has Trump’s base licking its lips.

On Twitter, users were quick to point out that ending DACA cannot possibly be about “the rule of law” when Trump pardoned disgraced Sheriff Joe Arpaio days earlier. What can be said about an administration that, after granting freedom to a man who illegally profiled Latinos, also puts the future of 800,000 young, law-abiding immigrants in jeopardy? Nothing good.

In recent years, there has been a bipartisan consensus that children who were brought to America at a young age should not be punished for their parents’ decision to immigrate to the United States illegally. Even Trump seemed on-board with this stance, at one point saying that he believed the DACA program consisted of “absolutely incredible kids.” Now, Trump is going back on his word, and the potential implications for DACA recipients are life-altering.

Trump was right in his initial assessment of these “incredible kids.” DACA recipients are a boost to our economy and present no credible criminal threat. In order to be accepted as a DACA applicant, you must complete a comprehensive background check; if a recipient were to be arrested, they could be stripped of their DACA status without even being convicted. When Sessions stepped out to the podium and told the American people that repealing DACA would create more jobs and make our communities safer, he was once again pushing a false narrative to justify a bigoted agenda. Why would Sessions and Trump smear a group of lawful, hardworking immigrants? The answer, sadly, has to do entirely with the pigment of their skin, rather than the legality of the Act.

It’s not difficult to see that Trump’s announcement, like so many other of his policies, is racially motivated. Trump’s talk of “the rule of law” is a pathetic justification for jeopardizing the livelihood of 800,000 children and young adults. As Trump aims to further indulge his core base of far-right nationalists, he will surely continue to deflect criticism with a barrage of false narratives and asinine explanations. At this point, Donald, why bother with the excuses?                                  

Contact Eli Cousin

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