President Trump signaled Friday that he will once again move to cancel the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty, though this time he said he’ll check all the proper procedural boxes.
His announcement came a day after the Supreme Court shot down his first revocation attempt from 2017, saying that while he has the power to revoke the program, his team didn’t do enough to take into account the suffering that would fall on 650,000 illegal immigrant “Dreamers” who are enrolled in the program.
Mr. Trump, on Twitter, said the high court “punted” in sending the matter back for reconsideration, and said his administration will comply by issuing an updated revocation.
“We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil[sic] the Supreme Court’s ruling & request of yesterday,” he wrote.
He said he’s been trying to strike a deal with congressional Democrats to give DACA recipients a more permanent legal status, but said they’ve refused to negotiate with him. He has sought to couple a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers with border wall funding and restrictions on legal immigration, but Democrats say his offer on Dreamers is too stingy and his other asks are too much.
“They have abandoned DACA,” the president said. “Based on the decision the Dems can’t make DACA citizens. They gained nothing!”
DACA, created by President Obama in 2012, grants a stay of deportation and work permits to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as juveniles.
Mr. Trump and his team tried to cancel the program in 2017, saying it was illegal.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, avoided ruling on DACA itself, but said Mr. Trump’s phaseout — done through the same method used to create DACA — was illegal because it didn’t follow the procedural hoops.
Writing in dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said that left the Trump administration in the bizarre position of trying to cancel a program through the same way it was established, and being told it couldn’t.
After the ruling, congressional Democrats had warned Mr. Trump against issuing a new revocation, saying he should instead accept their bill that cleared the House last year that would legalize Dreamers and other illegal immigrants.
That bill does not contain any of the security enhancements Mr. Trump has sought in exchange for a DACA deal.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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