The end is near. Well, at the very least, it could be end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Actually, the end has been coming for some time, but that is not preventing pro-amnesty activists and lawmakers from dreaming up another inconceivable and cynical justification to it alive.
United We Dream, an activist pro-immigrant group, is circulating a petition demanding that “in the face of a global health crisis, Trump must swiftly and automatically renew DACA status for all immigrant youth whose DACA expires in 2020. In addition, we demand that Trump withdraw his case to terminate DACA from the Supreme Court.”
Why should both the executive and judicial branch ignore their respective duties to enforce and interpret existing immigration law? Because, they claim, “DACA means the difference between weathering through this crisis together or putting people in harm’s way.”
The president of FWD.us, the pro-amnesty advocacy group created by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Todd Schulte, has asserted that any delays in processing DACA renewals “would be viewed as the Trump Administration taking advantage of a global health crisis to circumvent the rulings of multiple courts that require USCIS to continue processing DACA renewal applications.”
The rulings of those multiple courts, however, are presently under review by the Supreme Court, which explains why FWD.us has made a similar call for the “Trump Admin to extend #DACA permits for 2 years and drop their appeal before the Supreme Court so our lives can have some normalcy in these times of panic.”
Like every other federal agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to temporarily close to the public. They have shown flexibility in making accommodations during this time, but even if they were to automatically extend DACA renewals, the fact remains the program lies in the hands of the Supreme Court, which has remained open for business.
So, amnesty advocates can continue to dream that they can delay a decision on whether the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act in ending DACA. Or they can face the facts laid out by President Obama one year before he created DACA.
“Congress passes the law, the executive branch’s duty is to enforce the law,” said President Obama during a 2011 Univision town hall. “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 to ignore those mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”