The Hypocrisy of Conservatives Opposing “the Dreamers”

For Christian Trump voters, the decision must be at least a little awkward, as faith leaders across the country came out strongly against the decision to rescind DACA protections.

The Trump administration’s first several months holding the reins of executive power has been notable for the clustering of policy failures. Whether it be its inability to compose a legally sound travel ban, its mishandling of nuclear de-escalation in North Korea or its health care bill’s agonizing defeat in the Senate, it’s difficult to see anything resembling the art of a deal.

One thing this White House has shown itself adept at time and again, however, has been revealing its own hypocrisies. And this week’s announcement from Trump’s Department of Justice that the federal government plans to rescind DACA was one of the most typical — yet most horrifying — examples of this trend to date.

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an Obama-era policy that protected some 800,000 children of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Participants, who were mostly children of immigrants from Mexico, could obtain permits to work legally in the United States and could renew their participation in the program every two years indefinitely. The Trump administration’s decision to provisionally axe this program demonstrates that, as far as it’s concerned, the Republican Party’s stated ideals are nothing more than a pretext for an agenda of prejudice.

Foremost among the Republican Party’s professed ideals is a devotion to the country’s business health and cautious government spending. A large part of candidate Donald Trump’s electoral appeal came from voters who wanted the reality TV star to run the government like a business. But if a CEO were to make a decision like the one the president made earlier this week, he or she would likely have to face an angry board of directors — Trump’s policy change will cost an enormous amount of money to enact and exact billions of dollars in projected profits from the private sector in the long run.