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Attorney General Jeff
Sessions made the formal announcement in a press briefing today that President
Donald Trump has ended the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program that President Barack Obama put into place in 2012 that was a violation
of our constitutional separation of powers.
Sessions says the Department
of Justice represents all of the American people and integrity of the
Constitution.
He states that Trump's
leadership and immigration stance have led to reduction in the number of
illegal immigrants passing through the southern border.
He also says that Congress
should pass immigration legislation that advances the wishes of the American
people.
Sessions continues by
saying "we are people of compassion and we are people of law" but
there is nothing compassionate in not enforcing immigration law. Failure to not
enforce these laws have lead to crime.”
Sessions reads a quote
that says DACA was passed because former President Obama disagreed with a part
of the immigration policy and breached the separation of the branches of
government.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement
following Sessions' briefing that reiterates the "wind down" process
that he mentioned.
That statement reads, in part:
“This Administration’s decision to terminate DACA was not taken lightly. The Department of Justice has carefully evaluated the program’s Constitutionality and determined it conflicts with our existing immigration laws,” said Acting [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Elaine Duke. “As a result of recent litigation, we were faced with two options: wind the program down in an orderly fashion that protects beneficiaries in the near-term while working with Congress to pass legislation; or allow the judiciary to potentially shut the program down completely and immediately. We chose the least disruptive option.
“This Administration’s decision to terminate DACA was not taken lightly. The Department of Justice has carefully evaluated the program’s Constitutionality and determined it conflicts with our existing immigration laws,” said Acting [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Elaine Duke. “As a result of recent litigation, we were faced with two options: wind the program down in an orderly fashion that protects beneficiaries in the near-term while working with Congress to pass legislation; or allow the judiciary to potentially shut the program down completely and immediately. We chose the least disruptive option.
“With the measures the
Department is putting in place today, no current beneficiaries will be impacted
before March 5, 2018, nearly six months from now, so Congress can have time to
deliver on appropriate legislative solutions. However, I want to be clear that
no new initial requests or associated applications filed after today will be
acted on.”
U.S. House of
Representatives Majority Leader Paul Ryan released his statement on the DACA
announcement that reads, in part:
“However
well-intentioned, President Obama’s DACA program was a clear abuse of executive
authority, an attempt to create law out of thin air. Just as the courts have
already struck down similar Obama policy, this was never a viable long-term
solution to this challenge. Congress writes laws, not the president, and ending
this program fulfills a promise that President Trump made to restore the proper
role of the executive and legislative branches..."
