President Trump has decided to end the so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or “Dreamers,” program. This is an executive order that let as many as 800,000 people up to the age of 30, who were brought to the United States as children illegally, apply to get renewable two-year work authorization permits.
DACA, which was supposed to be temporary, also included the right to participate in the Social Security program.
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How can the President end DACA, you ask?
You must first ask how President Barack Obama created the original executive order.
Mr. Obama said he issued DACA because Congress failed to act on behalf of these young workers. But that presidential action was surely a matter of executive overreach. Only Congress can write or rewrite the nation’s immigration laws, and the courts would surely have affirmed this basic tenet of American constitutional law eventually — it is called separation of powers.
Mr. Obama did not have the legal right to create the program. Nonetheless, he promised 800,000 people, who came out of the shadows, that they would not be deported.
Now Mr. Trump has said he will act in a constitutional manner, which is proper, and he has called upon the Congress to act. He says he expects comprehensive immigration reform within six months.
But Congress is in knots. It has tax reform and the budget on its plate, as well as health insurance reform on the back burner.
Since broad reform is unlikely in that short time, Congress should concentrate on the one pressing aspect of immigration reform — creating a legal means of citizenship for the Dreamers. These are young people who were promised they could live in the nation where they grew up if they met specific qualifications — no criminal record, employment, or being in school, or serving in the military.
Not only are these people not a problem for the United States, but they are an asset to the United States, a point upon which there is actually agreement between left and right; the last and the current president.
Mr. Trump is committed to securing our borders and enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. It was a major part of his campaign for the presidency. Most Americans view this pledge as common sense.
But that does not necessitate punishing the Dreamers, who are people who were brought here by others breaking the law and have broken no law themselves. They show every indication of being exemplary citizens.
Besides, a promise was made — by a president.
A good way forward for our deeply divided polity (the Republicans are divided even among themselves) is to begin with what almost all of us can agree on. Most politicians, and most Americans, agree that there should be public works spending on the nation’s infrastructure, for example.
Most politicians, and most Americans, agree that there should be a legal path forward for the Dreamers. Congress should make time to create that path. According to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, it should take six hours, not six months.
First Published September 7, 2017, 9:30 p.m.
