What You Need to Know About DACA

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration intends to end a policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or daca. This government policy was put in place by former President Barack Obama via executive order in 2012. It grants deferred deportations, Social Security cards and driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States before they were 18 years old.

Barack Obama has since condemned President Donald Trump’s decision as “cruel.” But the president has no legal choice but to enforce the laws passed by Congress.

When Obama was president in 2011, he admitted, “With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case. … There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”

The recent announcement to end daca unless Congress passes an amnesty bill isn’t really about immigration. It is about overturning an unconstitutional power grab perpetrated by the administration of the previous president. One thing all Americans should be able to agree on is that presidents shouldn’t be allowed to flout the separation of powers doctrine and create new laws out of thin air. If respect for the Constitution erodes to a point where the rule of law no longer restrains political parties, there would be no guarantee of liberty!