Vermont US Senator Bernie Sanders Monday denounced President Trump’s anticipated decision to end a program that protects unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children as “one of the most cruel and ugly decisions ever made in the modern history of this country by a president.”
Addressing union workers at a Labor Day breakfast in a state he won by a large margin in his bid for president last year, Sanders blasted Trump for “trying to divide our nation up based on the color of our skin, based on the country in which we were born, based on our sexual orientation, based on our religion.”
“Our job as trade unionists, as our job as progressives, is to bring the American people together and to fight any and all attempts to divide us up,” Sanders said.
Trump is expected Tuesday to announce his plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which President Obama enacted by executive order in 2012. Such a change would affect about 800,000 unauthorized immigrants now shielded from potential deportation.
Trump is considering a compromise that would give Congress six months to come with up with an alternative plan, according to published reports.
Also Monday, Governor Charlie Baker added his voice to those urging Trump to keep the DACA program in place, telling WBZ Radio that “I’m hoping the president doesn’t repeal the DACA program, I’m hoping that he continues the DACA program.’’
