Tuesday, September 5, 2017

DACA is not unconstitutional

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unconstitutional and is being "rescinded.'
'We cannot admit everyone who would like to come here,' Sessions told reporters at the Justice Department.
The states of New York and Washington said ahead of Sessions' announcement that if President Donald Trump ended the program they would challenge the decision in court. Sessions said the immigration program was responsible for jobs being denied to Americans, and for a surge of minors at the southern border. - Robert Shroeder, MarketWatch

This statement by the Attorney General is not true.  DACA is not unconstitutional and no federal court has successfully found DACA unconstitutional. Presidents from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Clinton to both Bushes and Obama have used their discretion under U.S. immigration laws to grant admissibility to aliens or to deport them. Were all of these presidents' actions in exercising their discretion "unconstitutional"?  I think not.
I guess it depends on how many people you want to help or hurt. Obama clearly wanted to help children brought here by their parents. These children did not have legal capacity to break the law.
Or a president can do what Donald Trump has done and hurt more than 800,000 American children and their families, friends and employers.
It depends on whether the president has good character and decency.

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