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Late-night shakes its head over Trump’s DACA decision

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Late-nightTV
Sept. 6, 2017, 9:02 a.m.

Late-night shakes its head over Trump’s DACA decision

On Tuesday, President Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, the Obama administration policy that grants young immigrants a way to stay in the country legally, the right to work and apply for driver’s licenses. As the day’s biggest news, it was headed straight to late-night television for commentary.

“This morning, our president woke up and asked his staff, ‘Now that this hurricane is over, what’s something horrible I can do to distract people from the Russia investigation?’ ” said Jimmy Kimmel on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

“And someone said, ‘There are 800,000 innocent kids you could deport for no good reason,’ and he said, ‘Done, and done,’ ” Kimmel said.

“This is what he wants to do away with, mostly because President Obama is the one who ordered it. It seems like his main agenda is just to undo everything Obama did. I hope he doesn’t bring bin Laden back to life,” Kimmel joked.

Over on “The Tonight Show,” Jimmy Fallon worked the same theme: “If Obama really wants to save DACA, he should say he hates it, then Trump will say, ‘In that case, I love it. I want to double, double the DACA.” (Fallon really seemed to like saying “double DACA” in his Trump voice.)

“But anyway,” Kimmel continued, “it’s a surprise because a few months ago, Trump said those covered by DACA could rest easy. And that’s when you know you’re in trouble. It’s like when Dracula tells you to relax and take off your scarf.

“Ultimately Donald Trump believes that if these kids want to be American,” Kimmel said, “they have to do it the right way — by marrying Donald Trump. And it’s as simple as that.”

On “Late Night,” Seth Meyers got to DACA by way of Hurricane Harvey, having first examined Trump’s tonally bizarre addresses to its victim: “What a crowd; what a turnout,” “Have a good time, everybody.”

“It reminds me of newscaster Herbert Morrison and his commentary during the Hindenburg disaster,” Meyers said. “‘Just look at those beautiful flames arching skyward from that airship. Oh, the humanity — the humanity is having the time of their lives.”

Meyers pivoted to DACA through paramedic Jesus Contreras, a “Dreamer” who “spent six straight days rescuing people in Houston” and whom Trump’s order makes vulnerable to deportation.

“Now polls have shown consistently that a large majority of Americans support letting DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, stay in the country. Which may explain why Trump hid behind his attorney general today, letting Jeff Sessions make the announcement,” Meyers said.

“All Trump could muster was a statement supporting the decision and a tweet urging Congress to come up with a solution. … ‘Congress get ready to do your job. DACA!’ Trump ends every tweet like he’s jumping out from behind a door to scare you.

“So a president who backed himself into a corner by catering to the racial resentments of his base is now needlessly throwing the lives of hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans into chaos,” Meyers observed.

There was no punchline attached.

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