Obama’s Legacy DACA Program Defeated in Texas
For years, Republicans have been trying to chip away at DACA, and Texas has finally succeeded.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that DACA violated immigration laws, but there is a caveat.
Obama Introduces DACA
When Barack Obama was on the 2012 campaign trail, he implored Congress to put the Dreamers Act on his desk so he could sign it.
Congress never got the legislation passed, which resulted in Barack Obama issuing an executive order to effectively put the Dreamers legislation in play.
When Obama signed his order, he stated, “But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag.
“These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.”
Trump Tries to Reverse DACA
Donald Trump ran on reversing DACA, but he was never able to legally defeat the executive order.
Trump’s rescinding of the order eventually wound up before the Supreme Court, where Trump lost the decision in a 5-4 ruling.
In its ruling, the court stated, “Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner. The appropriate recourse is therefore to remand to DHS so that it may consider the problem anew.”
However, The battle continued as red states fought Obama’s legacy order, and Texas was finally successful.
DACA is Unlawful
The victory for Texas was big, but it was not quite what conservatives had hoped for. The ruling has limited the decision to only Texas, stating, “The [Immigration and Nationality Act] ‘expressly and carefully provides legal designations allowing defined classes of aliens to be lawfully present.’
"In the INA, Congress enacted a ‘comprehensive federal statutory scheme for regulation of immigration and naturalization’ and ‘set the terms and conditions of admission to the country.
“Because it chose not to include DACA recipients in that comprehensive scheme, ‘Congress’s rigorous classification scheme forecloses the contrary scheme in the DACA Memorandum.’”
The ruling definitely started to chip away at DACA, but the fact it is only binding in Texas is still a problem. Having said that, Donald Trump finally has some leverage to use against Democrats once he takes office and looks to end DACA once and for all. My guess is that Trump will offer amnesty for the 500,000 or so immigrants in the program in exchange for having the program ended. If Dems are smart, they will take the deal because the foundation of DACA is finally starting to crumble.
