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‘A white supremacist ransom note’: DREAMers quickly reject Trump’s immigration plan

"Another attempt by the White House to undermine the delicate, bipartisan work happening in Congress."

Credit: (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Credit: (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The White House unveiled its new immigration framework Thursday, a plan officials claim will save 1.8 million DREAMers in exchange for $25 billion dollars for increased border security. But the framework also severely limits legal forms of immigration, like the diversity visa lottery program, and excludes immigrants from sponsoring non-immediate family members — both legal forms of immigration that are primarily utilized by non-white immigrants.

Several DREAMers — people who were brought to the U.S. as children — and immigrants rights advocacy groups reacted to the White House’s proposal almost immediately, calling out the Trump administration for its brazen embrace of a popular white supremacist policy platform.

“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity,” immigrant advocacy group United We Dream said in a statement Thursday.

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“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling Trump and Miller’s white supremacist agenda. Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”

“The white supremacists who operate in the White House without hoods have hijacked the immigration debate in our country, attempting to hold young, undocumented immigrants hostage in exchange for a vile, extremely racist agenda that will drag our country back to the pre-civil rights era,” Kica Matos, Fair Immigration Reform Movement spokesperson, said in a statement responding to the White House’s policy framework.

“The proposed immigration framework is also another attempt by the White House to undermine the delicate, bipartisan work happening in Congress.