Trump Will Extend DACA Deadline if Congress Doesn’t Get it Together
“If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively”
All the hand-wringing and fear-mongering over Trump’s decision to kick DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to Congress was for naught (as we predicted).
Last week, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said Trump told him he’s willing to give Congress time to find a way to legally codify DACA, the extra-legal program created by President Obama providing temporary work authorization for DREAMers.
From the WaPo:
President Trump will extend a March 5 deadline to end protections for young undocumented immigrants if Congress fails to act by then, according to a Republican senator who spoke directly with the president about the issue.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Trump told him he was willing to “give it some more time” to allow lawmakers to find a solution for “dreamers,” unauthorized immigrants brought to this country as children, if Congress does not pass legislation extending protections before time is up.
“The president’s comment to me was that, ‘We put a six-month deadline out there. Let’s work it out. If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively,’ ” Lankford said outside a town hall here Thursday night.
Trump did not specify how long an extension might last, Lankford said.
“He wants a legislative solution,” the senator said. “His focus was, ‘We’ve got to get a legislative solution.’”
As we discussed when AG Sessions announced the administration’s decision to rescind DACA, protecting DREAMers is widely favored across party lines. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the way DACA was created, not its substance has been the sticking point for most Republicans.
Ultimately, anything beyond the above listed changes is wildly speculative. If, and it looks as though it will be the case, DACA gets kicked to Congress, it will be up to the legislature to decide what, how, when, etc. As it should be. And until they tackle DACA, no one really knows how this will pan out.
All of the hand-wringing could very well be for naught if Congress comes up with something that would essentially codify DACA by other means. The upcoming Sessions’ announcement will bring an end to a well-intentioned program that was created extralegally and allow Congress the opportunity to protect DREAMers the right way. And Trump seems perfectly amenable to signing some form of a DREAM Act.
While Trump is amenable to creating legal DACA provisions, doing so comes at a steep price for Congressional Democrats. In exchange, the White House issued a tough list of border-securing measures.
Nevertheless, Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to, “turn over emails, letters, memos and other materials related to its decision to end,” DACA, reports Politico:
A federal judge in California on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to turn over emails, letters, memos and other materials related to its decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The order by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, based in San Francisco, also appears to cover legal advice about winding down the program, which grants quasi-legal status and work permits to so-called Dreamers.
Acting in a series of lawsuits filed over the decision, the judge said the administration had waived its attorney-client privilege by claiming the decision was driven by concerns that the program is unconstitutional.
“Defendants argue that [the Department of Homeland Security] had to rescind DACA because it exceeded the lawful authority of the agency,” Alsup wrote. “They cannot, therefore, simultaneously refuse to disclose the legal research that led to that conclusion. Plaintiffs are entitled to challenge whether this was a reasonable legal position and thus reasonable basis for rescission. In making that challenge, plaintiffs are entitled to review the internal analyses that led up to this change in position.”
Democrats have pledged support to DREAMers anxious for Congress to get a move on:
Our message to immigrants is simple: We stand with you. We fight with you. And we’re not backing down. #ProtectDREAMers pic.twitter.com/lsBEuvbeLm
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 18, 2017
Even if some DREAMers aren’t buying it.
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Comments
Among us common folk what Trump is doing is known as
“Giving them enough rope to hang themselves.”
Yes. There are two classes of special and peculiar interests that favor illegal and excessive immigration: business and Democratic.
Perhaps Trump could use some advice on drawing useless red lines from his predecessor…
there is a simple way to deal with this issue.
send them all back to the country they are legal citizens of, and let them get in line for a visa.
just tack on the amount of time they were here illegally to the waiting period.
seems fair & equitable to me.
“Simple” doesn’t accomplish much.
DACA is the smallest and least important part of the invasion problem. A victory there but a loss everywhere else would be worthless. It’s much more useful as a bargaining chip with an inert Congress which doesn’t want to do anything constructive either way, and is terrified of taking the heat for anything it actually does.
As for whether the President plays his hand well … we won’t know until we count the bets and see the cards. Trump is shaping up as a pretty good card player—keep ’em guessing until all the bets are in. Kibitzers like to think this is a weakness, but when he’s playing against the entire house—all of political Washington, a.k.a. “the Swamp”—it’s the only reasonable way to play.
So, what do we have here exactly?
First, we have a Congressman who is saying that Trump said, ” We put a six-month deadline out there. Let’s work it out. If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively,”. Does this mean that Trump will, in fact, actually extend the six-month deadline for deportation action on DACA registrants? Who knows? In fact, until Trump corroborates this account, we do not even know it it is accurate. We do not know the context of the conversation, if it even occurred.
There is essentially NO deadline on Congressional action on DACA registrants. The President has stated, publicly, that no further renewal of DACA work permits will be done and that in three months, DACA registrants will be subject to deportation as their work permits expire, UNLESS the Congress takes action. This means that DACA registrants will be protected for up to two years. And, there is no evidence that Trump will extend that deadline.
As to the court order requiring all documents pertaining to the rescission of the DACA EO, they can have all of that. Legally, the President has the power to rescind the EO, for no reason what so ever. But, he actually has a duty to rescind it if it is unlawful or unconstitutional. And, given the SCOTUS decision in previous DAPA cases, the constitutionality of the DACA is not likely to be affirmed.
1. T-rump has not contradicted any part of what Lankford said. He knows EXACTLY how to do that, if he wished to.
2. DACA is unconstitutional. See the period? T-rump has let it run for nine months, and he’s CLEARLY stated he will extend it for AT LEAST SIX months. Longer at his whim.
3. Ergo, T-rump is acting in violation of his oath just precisely as was Barracula.
4. It is without question the Obama/T=rump DACA now.
5. No serious person would entertain the delusion that DREAMERS, if granted amnesty, will NOT acquire citizenship. This has been explicitly stated by T-rump officials.
6. T-rump has signaled for many months, going back to his campaign, that he will grant amnesty to DREAMERS and “touch-back” illegals. Anyone outside his cult knows this.
7. In his inaugural speech, Donald Ducks EXPRESSLY promised to “immediately” rescind the TWO Barracula affronts to the Constitution, DACA being one. He lied.
The delusional nutter notwithstanding.
Let’s clear up your points, shall we?
First, Trump has neither confirmed nor denied what what Langford said. This is far different from your assumption that Langford’s quote of Trump’s words was accurate and in context. Trump may well have said what Langford reported. Then again he might not have. And, we all know that Trump’s statements have been misquoted, taken out of context and even made up entirely. So, it might be a good idea to wait to see what he does.
Yes DACA IS unconstitutional. However, the Dreamer situation is one which generates a lot of sympathy for those affected. These people were sold a bill of goods by the last President, who represents our nation, whether we like it or not. So, it is not the end of the world if the DACA program is shut down and those affected given the opportunity to leave the country voluntarily or be deported. If the work permit program is suspended and no new work permits are issues, then the DACA recipients will have to leave or be deported when their permits expire.
Once again, Trump has not stated that he will extend any thing. Langford stated that and it has not been confirmed.
As to Dreamers being granted citizenship, that would depend entirely upon the Congress and the President. Not just the President or the Congress alone. So, let’s wait and see what happens, shall we?
As to Trump wanting to grant amnesty to Dreamers, he has indicated that he DOES wish to do that. However, he has also NOT done that, as he has stated that does not have that authority. The Congress can grant such amnesty and if they do, Trump might well sign such a bill, If he gets the concessions that he has asked for. This is politics, Rags. It is compromise.
It always intrigues me that anti-Trumpers remember any promises that Trump fails to deliver on in the manner they wish, but completely the myriad other promises which he has kept and which he is attempting to keep.
Now let me lay out the situation with the Dreamers.
The Dreamers are a huge problem for the GOP and for the President. The GOP is caught between satisfying their base, who wants immigration laws enforced, and voters who are sympathetic to the plight of the Dreamers. They do not want to do anything about the current immigration laws, especially coming into the 2018 midterms. But, Trump did two things, with DACA. He froze the program at the current level of participation and the participants will lose any protections they have as their work permits expire over the next two years. Not an ideal solution, but it allows Trump to duck both public pressure and litigation while he is still trying to get Congress to move on his MAGA agenda. So, DACA, as a viable program is no more. He then used the Dreamers to put pressure on the Congress to move forward portions of his agenda, which they had so far refused to move on. This known as politics. Trump’s actions actually allow him to keep his promise to rescind DACA and put pressure on the Congress to pass items of his agenda. If this was being done buy anyone else, he would be universally hailed a brilliant politician. But, it is Trump, so he is a lying scumbag, right? On the other hand, if Trumps is reported to have given the Congress an additional six months leeway, before deportations for expired work permits begin, this takes the pressure of the Congress to act immediately. If deportations, of Dreamers, begins before that “extended” deadline, then the Congress can go into the midterms claiming that Trump lied to them and it is all his fault that they could not save the Dreamers. Again, this is politics.
I have no idea how this will all play out. The Republican Congress has shown NO interest in changing the immigration laws, even though they have had several years to attempt to do so. Will the Congress pass any legislation to legalize the status of the Dreamers? Who knows. Also, Trump has said that he is open to legalizing the status of the Dreamers, if Congress passes such a bill. But, he has clearly attached stipulations to his signing of the bill which advance his agenda and provide safeguards against chain immigration. Would Trump sign a bill to legalize Dreamers without those stipulations? Who knows. He might. Then again he might not. The politically astute move, under those conditions, would be to veto the bill and force Congress to pass it over the veto. This would place the Congress in the cross-hairs of any backlash from Trump’s constituency.
Now, one last thing to remember. The Dreamers represent only 5-10% of the estimated 11-20 million illegal immigrants in this country. And, by virtue of being identified, they can be easily vetted, if they have not been vetted yet, or removed. It really does not matter if they are the first people deported or the last. And, if the Congress and the President change the laws to grant them legal status, it will be no big deal, especially if the stipulated safeguards are included. DACA is nothing more than another stick to be used by the anti-Trumpers to hit Trump over the head.
Let’s definestrate your steaming pile of cultist bullshit, shall we?
1. T-rump has had ample time to “correct” anything that Lankford said.
2. “Yes DACA IS unconstitutional. However, the Dreamer situation is one which generates a lot of sympathy for those affected.” Etc.
Irrelevant and gross apologia. T-rump took no oath to “sympathy”.
3. Lankford said what T-rump said to him. It comports perfectly with other Donald Ducks statements. There has been no refutation. If there has, post the link.
4. As to DREAMERS getting citizenship, do you deny what T-rump officials have said on the matter? Yes or no, please.
5. Does the “manner” of correctly reciting what T-rump promised in his inaugural have any bearing on the FACT he has broken his promise? Yes or no, please.
Your bullshit ensues on the matter of “the DREAMERS”.
T-rump promised to rescind DACA “immediately”. He lied.
He took an oath, and he’s breaking it every day DACA stands.
You poor, delusional nutter.
Trump should start deportations at the end of six months, that would most certainly encourage Congress to act. Start by expelling the least desirable SchDreamers.
More rent money saved by living for free in Rags head hahahahahahahahahhaha 🙂
Dont you see the beauty here though. By making this Congresses problem it becomes THEIR issue to own.
If they pass an amnesty bill then its owned by every single Republican and Democrat that voted for it.
IF they do nothing then that is owned by every single Republican and Democrat that did nothing.
Come mid term elections every single Republican will get hammered by the Tea Party over their do nothing approach to pretty much everything. And don’t kid yourself, this won’t work to the advantage of Democrats (because no one actually likes Democrats).
The end result is this is the GOPe’s problem and they will get killed over it and REAL conservatives voted in to get Trumps agenda passed that has been blocked at every turn by stains like McCain and co!
Little puppy dogs like Rags can bark at the moon as much as they want but they can’t get the genie back in the bottle. MAGA!
The conservatives in Congress should do everything to block an amnesty bill.
Concurrently, the state AGs and governors should press the case that the Obama/T-rump DACA is unconstitutional. Bench-slap both oath-breakers.
Doesnt change the fact that laws SHOULD be crafted in Congress and the Senate, NOT at the Presidents desk like what we saw during the reign of the Black Baby Jesus.
Congress owns this now so its up to them to do something about it.
No. T-rump OWNS this now. It came with his…
1. oath of office, AND…
2. his pledge to “immediately” rescind it.
He both LIED (again) AND violated his oath.
EVERY-flucking-day is a new instance of both those offenses.
Extending the deadline if Congress fails to at reminds me of the old Henny Youngman joke: My doctor told me I had 6 months to live. When I didn’t pay him after 6 months he gave me 6 more months to live.
What needs to happen is the states which filed suit against DACA, who stayed action to give Trump a chance to rescind His Imperial Executiveness’ EO, need to pursue their legal efforts again. There isn’t much* chance the courts will find it Constitutional given the DAPA history.
* I would have written “any”, but Judges these days don’t take the SCOTUS as any sort of authority when it comes to their personal political bent.
Ha! Ha! Ha! “Lordy,” as James Comey would say; where, in the “Art of the Deal,” does it say you should tell your negotiating party if they don’t negotiate in good faith they will get an indefinite extension of time to do so?
There might be wide support for Dreamers among Democrats and the GOP, but there is certainly none around the rest of the country. Just because you’re a child doesn’t mean you are above the law. Go home and get in line like everybody else! NO AMNESTY!
What line? There is no line for them to join. Unless they’re sponsored by an employer who has tried and failed to find US workers to take the job, or have a legal US-resident spouse or parent, or they qualify as refugees, there is literally no line. If they do qualify under these criteria there are lines, but they’re about 20-30 years long.