The only way America can fix its broken immigration system is by “treating each other with dignity and respect,” former US President Barack Obama said, his comment coming against the backdrop of protests erupting in multiple US cities against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdowns and the President ordering the expansion of such raids.
“Thirteen years ago, my administration acted to protect young people who were American in every single way but one: on paper,” Obama wrote on a social media post, referring to his initiative, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Daca.
“DACA was an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. And it’s an example worth remembering today, when families with similar backgrounds who just want to live, work, and support their communities, are being demonized and treated as enemies,” Obama wrote.
“We can fix our broken immigration system while still recognizing our common humanity and treating each other with dignity and respect. In fact, it’s the only way we ever will,” he added.
Introduced in 2012, DACA protects from deportation certain undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children; it does not offer a path to citizenship.
The policy allows eligible immigrants to obtain work permits, attend college, and receive driver's licences.
While DACA remains in place for current recipients, its future is increasingly uncertain. In 2022, a US federal court ruled against the Joe Biden administration’s updated DACA regulation, barring the government from approving new applications.
However, current recipients can still renew their status and employment authorisation documents, even as legal challenges continue to cast a shadow over the programme’s long-term viability.
Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritise deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the administration's immigration policies.
Trump in a social media posting called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History".
He added that to reach the goal, officials "must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside".
Trump's declaration came after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump's immigration policies, said US ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump's second term.
At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a US official familiar with the matter who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, per the Associate Press.
Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids have been flaring up around the country.
Opponents of Trump's immigration policies took to the streets as part of the "no kings" demonstrations on Saturday that came as Trump held a massive parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
Saturday's protests were mostly peaceful. But police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted a week earlier and sparked nationwide, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the event ended.
Officers in Portland, Oregon, also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of an ICE building well into the evening.
(with inputs from agencies)