Youngstown protest centers on DACA decision

September 5, 2017 at 7:31p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program protecting undocumented youth from deportation prompted a protest by area residents.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will end in March 2018.

DACA, passed in 2012 during Barack Obama’s presidency, gave nearly 800,000 children of undocumented immigrants brought into the country by their parents the opportunity to work in the U.S., and it protected them from deportation if they were accepted into the program.

About 30 people gathered at the corner of Market and Federal streets downtown. “We hope we can get a restitution to this horrible decision,” said Sister Norma Rappel of the Ursuline Sisters. “It’s unjust and embarrassing for us as Americans.”