ProtestsWashington

Mayor Rahm Emanuel declares Chicago a ‘Trump free zone’ after DACA decision



Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday that the city will continue to welcome Dreamers despite President Trump’s decision to end the DACA program.

“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,” Emanuel said to a group of students.

“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,” he said.

In 2012, then-President Obama started the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Under the program, young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children were protected from deportation. Trump announced Tuesday that those protections will end next March unless Congress acts before then.

Emanuel served as Obama’s chief of staff from January 2009 to October 2010. Obama on Tuesday called Trump’s action wrong and self-defeating.