ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders recently passed a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“President Trump’s misguided decision to rescind the DACA program not only represents yet another one of his broken promises, but it also undermines the very values our great nation was founded upon,” Vice President Brendan Gill, who introduced the resolution, said in a press release. “DREAMers play an integral role in the fabric of our state and our nation, which is the only place they have ever called home. Instead of implementing callous policies like this that tear families apart and threaten to deliver a devastating blow to our economy, Congress must work on protecting DREAMers and passing comprehensive immigration reform once and for all.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama created DACA to allow certain undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two years of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for work permit. Trump’s decision to end DACA could submit more than 20,000 hardworking New Jersey residents to deportation and result in the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion in economic activity every year for the state of New Jersey, according to the release.
“We thank Freeholder Brendan Gill and the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders for their support of the more than 22,000 immigrant young people who have been thrust into the deportation pipeline by President Trump’s decision to rescind DACA,” Sara Cullinane, director of Make the Road New Jersey, said in the release. “Now is the moment for our local and state elected officials to do everything in their power to protect and support immigrant youth and their families — we must be a sanctuary for those who are such a critical part of the fabric of our communities. We applaud the board for taking this step.”
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The Freeholders do not represent Essex County, only their self-serving selves. No one who came to this country illegally, and that includes children who were brought here with sole purpose of reaping benefits they were not taxed for, should be allowed to stay. There is a process of application and verification that should have been done as was for legitimate immigrants. Illegals who bypassed that step should be deported. I am of mixed heritage both of Native American and European.