A Democratic congressman from Illinois has launched a personal attack against retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, now White House chief of staff, over President Trump’s decision to end Obama-era protections for children of illegal aliens.
“General Kelly is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear,” Luis Gutiérrez said Tuesday in a statement. “He has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the President’s actions by ‘just following orders.’”
Gutiérrez was responding to Trump’s announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will end in six months, adding that he hopes Congress passes immigration reform before then. DACA is meant to protect children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, known as Dreamers.
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“General Kelly, when he was the head of Homeland Security, lied straight to the faces of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about preventing the mass deportation of Dreamers,” Gutiérrez. “Now as chief of staff, this former general is executing the plan to take away their lifeline and taking steps to criminalize young people who live and work here legally.”
Trump sought to reassure Dreamers that there won’t be any mass deportations on Thursday by tweeting: “For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about - No action!”
Still, Gutiérrez is not backing down from his angry comments about Trump or Kelly, his spokesman Douglas Rivlin told Marine Corps Times on Thursday.
Kelly served in the Marine Corps for more than 40 years. His son 1st Lt. Robert Kelly was killed in Afghanistan in November 2010. Since then, Kelly has comforted fallen service members friends and families and he has advocated for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to be afforded the same respect as veterans of past wars.
