NEW YORK, United States (CMC) — Caribbean American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke has strongly denounced US President Donald J Trump’s effort to end protections for young undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants, under former President Barack Obama’s policy, known as “Dreamers”.

Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme allowed about 650,000 undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants to live and work in the US legally.

While the US Supreme Court had ruled to invalidate Trump’s first attempt to terminate the policy, Trump moved this week to impose new restrictions on the programme.

“After the Supreme Court ruled that his previous attempt to terminate DACA could not proceed, the Bigot-in-Chief and his xenophobic administration have cobbled together a new plan to make the lives of young immigrants more difficult,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“Donald Trump campaigned on ending DACA, and this decision should serve as proof that he is willing to use even the smallest authorisation of his power to end this programme,” said Clarke, the representative for the primarily Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.

“Forty-five has spent the last three and a half years of his term demonising and denigrating immigrant folk of all backgrounds,” she said, referring to the 45th president of the United States. “From his ineffective wall to calling immigrants ‘an invasion of our country’ to caging young children at the border, this president’s cruelty knows no bounds.”

She said attacking DACA recipients “is the latest move of an unpopular president facing electoral defeat.

“In an attempt to excite voters, who relate to his pattern of xenophobia and racism, he has issued this policy as a cheap dog-whistle,” the congresswoman said.

“DACA recipients are Americans, plain and simple. This president said that he would put ‘Americans First,’ but he has repeatedly shown us that the only Americans he is interested in defending are the ones who share his background. I will continue to stand by our beloved ‘Dreamers’, even when this Administration refuses to,” Clarke said.

Acting US Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F Wolf announced on Tuesday that, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will take action “to thoughtfully consider the future of the DACA policy, including whether to fully rescind the programme”.

In the interim, and to address “serious concerns with the policy”, Wolf said in a statement that DHS will make a number of changes to the DACA immediately.

He said DHA will “reject all initial requests for DACA and associated applications for Employment Authorisation Documents; reject new and pending requests for advanced parole absent exceptional circumstances; and, limit the period of renewed deferred action granted pursuant to the DACA policy after the issuance of this memorandum to one year.”

“As the department continues looking at the policy and considers future action, the fact remains that Congress should act on this matter. There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy,” Wolf added.

Attorney Mark Rosenbaum, who is challenging Trump’s move to eliminate DACA, said he has no option but to sue Trump again.

“We obviously have no choice but to go back to court. It was illegal the first time, and now it’s a constitutional crisis. It’s as if a Supreme Court decision was written with invisible ink,” he added.