Chicago Mayor Declares City A “Trump Free Zone”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has declared the city a “Trump free zone” after the president rescinded the DACA program initiated by former president Barack Obama. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy‘s removal has offended many and Donald Trump is facing the backlash.

According to The Independent, Obama’s DACA program prevented nearly 800,000 people who came to the US illegally as children from being deported. While existing recipients of the program’s benefits will see no impact from Trump’s policy change for at least six months, no new applications can now be made per the new policy.

But Rahm Emmanuel made sure his opinions on the issue were known. He took matters into his own hands (or mouth), and in a speech to young DACA recipients at Chicago’s Solorio Academy High School, the mayor said:

“To all the Dreamers that are here in this room and the city of Chicago: you are welcome in the city of Chicago. This is your home and you have nothing to worry about. Chicago, our schools, our neighborhoods, our city, as it relates to what President Trump said, will be a Trump-free zone. You have nothing to worry about. And I want you to know this, and I want your families to know this. And rest assured, I want you to come to school … and pursue your dreams.”

*The term Dreamers comes from the proposed DREAM Act, which planned to give illegal immigrants legal status in exchange for attending college or joining the military.

President Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the decision to scrap the DACA program, calling it an “open-ended circumvention of immigration laws” and an unconstitutional use of executive authority. “The program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” said Sessions, who has long opposed the program.