The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a U.S. immigration policy created by executive action by President Obama in June 2012. DACA allows certain illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year periods of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit 1. President Trump rescinded DACA on September 5, 2017, but has delayed implementation for six months to give congress time to come up with a solution for the population that was previously eligible for DACA. President Trump has petitioned Congress to make DACA legal.
Since June 2012 Republican congress persons and governors have railed against DACA declaring that President Obama exceeded his authority in creating the program and that it is unconstitutional.
Now it appears that they really did not mean it. Prior to Tuesday’s announcement of the program s termination President Trump was besieged with Republican requests not to end the program. Cited among other things are the 700,000 jobs that will be lost if enforcement of the rescission is begun immediately. Of course this affects the young immigrants who would be deported; but it also affects employers who have said it is already hard to find employees.
But President Trump is on principled ground here. If DACA is an overreach of presidential authority it should be rescinded. And by rescinding DACA he gives congress the opportunity to continue his principled stand by taking no action and allowing implementation of the rescission (deportations) to begin in six months, or working to make DACA or some portions of it legal.
President Trump has made the right decision here, much like Solomon.2
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1. DACA was created after acknowledgment that many illegal dependant children had been largely raised in the United States and knew no other country. DACA was a way to remove immigration enforcement attention from “low priority” individuals with good behavior.[1] The illegal immigrant student population was rapidly increasing; approximately 65,000 illegal immigrant students graduate from U.S. high schools on a yearly basis.[2] In August 2012, the Pew Research Center estimated that up to 1.7 million people might be eligible.[3] As of June 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received 844,931 initial applications for DACA status, of which 741,546 (88%) were approved, 60,269 (7%) were denied, and 43,121 (5%) were pending. Over half of those accepted reside in California and Texas.[4]
2. Solomon s Judgment,
1 Kings 3:16-28 (KJV) 16 Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. 17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. 18 And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. 19 And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it. 20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. 22 And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. 23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. 24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. 26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. 27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. 28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.