MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee's Common Council voted 15-0 Wednesday to approve a resolution "expressing the City of Milwaukee's opposition to President Donald J. Trump's decision to suspend the immigration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals."
The resolution was introduced by Alderman Jose Perez.
"This is about children, our youth, dreaming of a better place and giving everything they are to contribute to that place," Perez said.
Perez said 8,000 Wisconsinites who hold valid employment authorization documents could be impacted by the President's decision regarding DACA.
"As president, my highest duty is to defend the American people and the Constitution of the United States of America. At the same time, I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents," said President Donald Trump in a statement on Tuesday. "But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws."
"In June of 2012, President Obama bypassed Congress to give work permits, social security numbers, and federal benefits to approximately 800,000 illegal immigrants currently between the ages of 15 and 36," Trump said. "The typical recipients of this executive amnesty, known as DACA, are in their twenties. Legislation offering these same benefits had been introduced in Congress on numerous occasions and rejected each time."
"There can be no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will," the President continued.
To read President Donald Trump's full statement on the DACA program decision, click here.
Perez rejected the President's statements that the suspension of DACA was needed.
"This certainly isn't about any solution coming in six months from Congress to this nightmare that's been created," the Alderman said. "There's no real need for this decision right now, as far as I understand. There's no deadline, no pending court case."
