Manila ready assist deportees following Trump's decision to rescind DACA

  MANILA - At least 10,000 Filipinos in the US may be deported as a result of President Donald Trump's decision to rescind the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA), according to an official of the Philippine embassy in Washington. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and the Philippine embassy in Washington however assured that the Philippine government is ready to assist those who will be affected by the repeal of DACA. Philippine embassy charge d'Affaires Chuasoto said 10,000 young Filipinos were allowed to stay in the US because of the DACA program and with the rescission of the program, they face deportation. Philippine embassy and foreign affairs department records showed that there are 3.4 million Filipinos in the US and around 310,000 are undocumented. In Manila, Cayetano said the foreign affairs department will offer "limited" assistance to those affected but warned that they should "prepare for the worst." US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday announced the end of DACA, which allowed nearly 800,000 so-called "dreamers" or children brought into the country by their parents who then overstayed their visas, to be protected from deportation and get two-year work permits. The DACA is a program initiated by then President Barack Obama. Sessions said the DACA was an unconstitutional exercise of executive power. Trump gave Congress six months to reach a deal to address the status of the 800,000 dreamers as part of immigration reforms before the 800,000 "dreamers" lose their status beginning March 5 next year. Obama however said in his Facebook account that targeting "dreamers" is self-defeating. "It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid's science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn't know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?" Obama said. "They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they're undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver's license." "Let's be clear: the action taken today isn't required legally. It's a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn't threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us." The announcement to end the DACA however was met with protests in major cities in the US. There were demonstrations in New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Oregon. Students in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Phoenix, Arizona walked out of their classes to protest the decision to end DACA. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) said in a statement that eliminating DACA protections "unjustly rips away the ladder of opportunity for hardworking people, divides families and pushes immigrant communities back into the shadows." "DACA recipients are American in every sense of the way, except for their paperwork, and we should allow them to thrive and build lives here in the United States. Now is the time to take our fight to Capitol Hill, and NaFFAA renews its call for Congress to pass the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform that unites families, rather than divides them," the NaFFAA said. 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