OPINION:
A federal judge in California ruled that President Donald Trump’s move to end the Barack Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was misguided and therefore must remain in place.
And Obama, whose pet DACA program has been a thorn in the side of control border types for years, just won another feather for his cap.
Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said Homeland Security’s attempt to put an end to DACA was “based on a flawed legal premise,” that it was “arbitrary and capricious,” and that the administration must now resume renewals. The slight concession to Team Trump?
They don’t have to process new applications for hopeful DACA recipients.
It was last September that Trump announced an intended end, or the least, massive curtailment, to DACA, the program that allows those who were brought to the United States illegally by parents or caretakers to stay in-country for a period of time. There are currently an estimated 700,000 of these so-called Dreamers in-country right now — and the left wants them all granted complete amnesty.
Some on the right do, as well.
At an on-camera White House meeting held Tuesday, Trump indicated that he might be one of them — that he might be willing to “take the heat” for Republican and Democratic congressional members who brought him a bill that allowed DACA recipients to stay in the country, in exchange for tighter border security.
Let’s not forget the beginnings of DACA, however. This was a program that was established by the executive in 2012 and then expanded by that same executive in 2014 — absent congressional stamp of approval. Why?
As Obama said in his 2012 Rose Garden speech: Because Congress wouldn’t bend to his will on immigration. He also said it was a temporary stay for the program recipients, not permanent.
“In the absence of any immigration action from Congress to fix our broken immigration system, what we’ve tried to do is focus our immigration enforcement resources in the right places,” Obama said on June 15, 2012. “This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix. This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people.”
Another lie? It would seem so.
Trump called out the legalities of DACA just this week.
“President Obama, when he signed the executive order, actually said he doesn’t have the right to do this,” Trump said. “You have to go through Congress.”
But now?
Courts aren’t just ruling in DACA’s favor — in Obama’s favor. Now, Trump’s taken on a more accepting role for the whole DACA matter, using the program as a sort of bartering tool in his larger fight for border control and national security.
Some call that smart politicking. Some, a betrayal.
Either way, what’s clear with DACA is that America may have a Republican in the White House, a Republican-dominated House and Senate and a standing from a conservative-minded citizenry on matters tied to clamping borders and halting amnesty in its tracks. But Obama’s thumbprint nonetheless remains. Obama’s dream for the Dreamers still carries the order of the day.
Cheryl Chumley can be contacted at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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