If ever there was a case of dishonest reporting, it is the coverage of the Supreme Court decision on the DACA or Dreamers issue. Democrats claim – and the media proclaims – that President Trump wants to deport all those who were brought here illegally by their parents. That is a false mantra of the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement.
Trump has consistently said that he wants to seek a PERMANENT resolution to the Dreamer issue that would enable them to stay in America as legal residents –with the potential of citizenship as an open question.
To understand Trump’s position, you have to know how we got to this point. On several occasions, President Obama – a onetime professor of constitutional law — emphatically stated that only the Congress could deal with normalizing the Dreamers – establishing legal status. Such action was beyond the ascribed powers of a President.
Contrary to his own counsel, Obama yielded to political pressure and issued an Executive Order — with a termination date. While Obama was applauded from the left and cheered by those who believed he had given them legal status, he had merely provided a questionable temporary reprieve – essentially kicking the can down the road to some future President – who turned out to be Donald Trump.
Even worse, Obama provided the cover and the incentive for Congress needed to NOT deal with the thorny Dreamer issue.
No sooner had the Obama EO been issued that the question of constitutionality was brought in a number of suits in the federal courts. That process is still going on – and it is expected that the Supreme Court will issue its opinion on that matter in the near future.
When the Obama safety net no longer existed, Trump had two choices. He could re-issue the dubious Obama EO or not. Trump did not — based on a reasonable belief that a President does not have the constitutional power to legislate in that manner. And, of course, there was still the unresolved question of constitutionality slowly winding its way through the federal courts.
It is also important to remember that candidate Obama pledged that immigration reform and a resolution of the Dreamer issue would be his first order of business He never got to that issue until late in his second term. He did nothing for the first two years when he and the Democrats had control of both the House and the Senate. It was a campaign promise not kept.
Contrary to the left’s frequent characterization of Trump as an autocrat, in this issue, Trump has proved himself to be a small “d” democrat – a constitutionalist. He punted the Dreamers’ ball back to Congress – where most constitutional scholars believe it belongs. At no time did Trump express a desire or intention to massively deport Dreamers. He has made that quite clear – in words and actions.
The media likes to bring up an out-of-context quote from Trump– when he said that SOME of the Dreamers are “not good people.” Those types he would consider deporting. Anyone who thinks that every one of the 600,000 to 800,000 Dreamers is a Mother Theresa or a Gandhi is just delusional. Using that observation to imply that Trump favors mass deportation is another of the Democrats’ and the media’s grand lies.
The decision of the Supreme Court is not the major setback for Trump’s Dreamer policy that the media portrays it to be. The split Court decided that in allowing the Obama EO to terminate, the administration did not make a strong enough case. It was a technical failure.
What gets underreported is that the Court did NOT say that the President lacks the POWER to end the Dreamer protection – and even start deporting Dreamers – but that there was a procedural error. The Court Did NOT question the inherent power of the President to legally deport those who came to America illegally, just that the manner in which it was carried out was flawed.
The Dreamers gained nothing from this decision – unless it is just a short time of continued uncertainty. Their status has not changed. Trump could still end the program – much like he turned the mislabeled “Muslim ban” from a defeat to a victory in the Supreme Court.
Trump will not issue an EO that he – and many authorities – believe is unconstitutional. In a sense. He is heeding the counsel of that noted constitutional scholar, Professor Barack Obama.
It is important to remember that there has been no effort by the Trump administration to deport anyone of good conduct since the Obama EO expired. Had Trump wanted to kick off mass deportations, he could have done so. The Obama EO was null and void. Rather, Trump’s effort has been to provide PERMANENT protection for Dreamers through the necessary legislative process.
At this point, a lot depends on the Supreme Court’s decision on the major issue – whether the Obama EO was constitutional or an abuse of power. It is never wise to predict a decision by those nine justices in the black robes, but the weight of scholarly opinion is that they will decide against Obama. We will soon see.
So, there ‘tis.