This morning, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end to an Obama-era program that shielded close to a million illegal immigrants from deportation and entitled them to Social Security benefits.
The program is called DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which Obama formed by executive fiat, completely bypassed the United States Congress, granting amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who arrived here as children.
Specifically, DACA provided legal status for this population of illegal immigrants in two-year terms, providing them with work authorization and other benefits, including participation in the United States Social Security program. In other words, DACA has entitled some “800,000 mostly-adult illegal aliens” (per DOJ) jobs here in the U.S.
In today’s announcement to do away with the program, the Mr. Sessions said:
The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences. It also denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.
We inherited from our Founders—and have advanced—an unsurpassed legal heritage, which is the foundation of our freedom, safety, and prosperity.
As the Attorney General, it is my duty to ensure that the laws of the United States are enforced and that the Constitutional order is upheld.
No greater good can be done for the overall health and well-being of our Republic, than preserving and strengthening the impartial rule of law. Societies where the rule of law is treasured are societies that tend to flourish and succeed.
Societies where the rule of law is subject to political whims and personal biases tend to become societies afflicted by corruption, poverty, and human suffering.
To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. That is an open border policy and the American people have rightly rejected it.
Therefore, the nation must set and enforce a limit on how many immigrants we admit each year and that means all can not be accepted.
This does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way. It means we are properly enforcing our laws as Congress has passed them.
Sessions went on to explain that the courts have found DACA “inconsistent with the Constitution’s separation of powers” adding that Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Duke “has chosen, appropriately, to initiate a wind-down process.
Ending DACA, Sessions said, “will enable DHS to conduct an orderly change and fulfill the desire of this administration to create a time period for Congress to act—should it so choose. We firmly believe this is the responsible path. Simply put, if we are to further our goal of strengthening the constitutional order and the rule of law in America, the Department of Justice cannot defend this type of overreach.”
Sessions also reinforced President Trump’s commitment to sensible immigration policies that protect American citizens and their livelihood:
We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law. But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws. Enforcing the law saves lives, protects communities and taxpayers, and prevents human suffering. Failure to enforce the laws in the past has put our nation at risk of crime, violence and even terrorism. The compassionate thing is to end the lawlessness, enforce our laws, and, if Congress chooses to make changes to those laws, to do so through the process set forth by our Founders in a way that advances the interest of the nation. That is what the President has promised to do and has delivered to the American people. Under President Trump’s leadership, this administration has made great progress in the last few months toward establishing a lawful and constitutional immigration system. This makes us safer and more secure.
