Watch: Ed Markey says what DACA really stands for is ‘deserving a chance in America’
“It is heartbreaking to witness this administration strip protections away from people who are American in all the ways that should matter.”
https://www.facebook.com/EdJMarkey/videos/10155500401306379/
(Video may take a moment to load.)
Sen. Ed Markey took the floor of the Senate Thursday to urge his colleagues to continue “fighting” to protect young immigrants from deportation.
“These Dreamers know no other home than the United States and many of them have spent their lives in limbo identifying as Americans, but lacking legal status,” the Bay State Democrat said.
Markey said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program commonly referred to as “DACA,” which was implemented under the Obama administration and ordered repealed by President Donald Trump, “really stands for ‘deserving a chance in America.’”
He related the story of a DACA recipient in Massachusetts named Estefany, who he said had just started her first day as a college freshman at UMass Boston when Trump moved to repeal the program that had allowed her to live without the fear of deportation.
Markey urged his colleagues not to “abandon these young people, who we urged to come out of the shadows” and said it was “unconscionable” to let them live under the threat of deportation.
“They are our friends, our neighbors, and our loved ones,” Markey said. “They are not too lazy. They are not ‘bad hombres’ — they are some of the best and the brightest in our country. Now because of President Trump’s unconscionable decision to end DACA, Estefany and so many young people like her are living in darkness again. It is heartbreaking to witness this administration strip protections away from people who are American in all the ways that should matter.”
