Senator Kamala Harris went after President Trump following his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, saying the commander in chief wrongly equated aspiring foreign citizens with the violent MS-13 gang.
Trump led into his immigration plan by introducing two families whose daughters were killed in Long Island, N.Y., in 2016. Six members of the MS-13 gang, whose members come from Central America, are charged in their killings.
"Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors ‑- and wound up in Kayla (Cuevas) and Nisa's (Mickens) high school," the president said.
The president then introduced the four pillars of his immigration plan, which included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the end of chain migration and securing America's borders.
After the speech, Harris, D-Calif., slammed the president on MSNBC, telling host Chris Matthews, "MS-13 is an example of some of the worst criminal gang behavior," but, "to equate that with DREAMers and DACA was completely irresponsible, and it was scapegoating and it was fear-mongering and it was wrong."
"It was wrong technically in terms of the nature and character of these populations and in terms of the difference in terms of who they are and how they live their lives," she said. "We're not supposed to convince the American public of policy because we make them afraid."
The future of DREAMers — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children — has played a central role in the ongoing immigration debate. Trump last year announced the end of former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which saved about 800,000 people from deportation and helped grant work permits.
(USA Today)
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