Austin, Texas – In a new must-read, Juan Castillo, the editorial page editor for Austin American Statesman calls on President Trump to leave behind the nativist language of his campaign and to instead lead on a solution to the crisis he created by ending DACA. Castillo calls on President Trump to provide an opportunity for Dreamers to stay in the country the call home and not be subjected to potential deportation and detention.
Find excerpts of the piece, “DACA decision will define the kind of America we want to be” below and in its entirety here.
On immigration policy, President Trump, you can’t have it both ways and all the spaces between.
Trump loves to preen that he is the master dealmaker, but one must wonder how deals ever get made when he vacillates so wildly, as he has about the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants known as Dreamers.
“He talks out of both sides of his mouth,” says Julieta Garibay of Austin, the Texas director and co-founder of the immigrant youth-led network United We Dream.
Trump once seemed morally conflicted about Dreamers and said he had a “great heart” and a “great love” for them. But when the government shut down Jan. 20 over an immigration legislation impasse tying the fate of Dreamers to Trump’s border wall, an angry president seemed to lose that loving feeling. He conflated Dreamers with all undocumented immigrants and stoked nativist fear, feeding a myth that undocumented immigrants are violent criminals.
Not enough whiplash for you? Late last week, Trump said he is open to a path to citizenship for Dreamers after 10 to 12 years, a position starkly at odds with his hard-line stance for illegal immigration crackdowns. Only days earlier, he had rejected a similar bipartisan plan.
