Betrayal? President Trump Flirts with DACA Amnesty

  |  
Jul 12, 2020

On July 10, 2020, President Trump announced that he would sign “a very major immigration bill” in the next month or so.

This bill would create a “road to citizenship” to approximately 800,000 illegal aliens who are under the umbrella of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In an interview with Telemundo on July 10, Trump said he is crafting an amnesty plan that would allow hundreds of thousands of DACA illegal aliens to stay permanently in the U.S. and eventually receive American citizenship.

Trump said that DACA proposal would be revealed “over the next four weeks.” The president continued:

I’m going to do a big executive order. I have the power to do it as president. And I’m going to make DACA a part of it. But we put it in and we’re probably then going to be taking it out. We’re working out the legal complexities right now, but I’m going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order. I’m going to make DACA a part of it.

Trump added:

No, what I’m going to do is that they’re going to [be] part of a much bigger bill on immigration. It’s going to be a very big bill, a very good bill, and merit-based bill, and it will include DACA, and I think people are going to be very happy.

In the meantime, we’ll put it in, we’ll take it out… I think people are going to be very happy with it, but one of the aspects of the bill, which frankly, nobody knows about until right now because I told no other report[ers], so you have breaking news. Congratulations. But one of the aspects of the bill is going to be DACA. We’re going to have a road to citizenship.

Trump stated that the recent series of Supreme Court rulings have granted him “tremendous powers” over immigration:

If you look at the Supreme Court ruling, they gave the president tremendous powers when they said that you could take in, in this case, 700,000 or so people, so they gave powers. Based on the powers that they gave, I’m going to be doing an immigration bill. One of the aspects of the bill that you will be very happy with, and that a lot of people will be, including me and a lot of Republicans, by the way, will be DACA. It gives them a road to citizenship.

Trump’s comments came following the Supreme Court’s ruling from last month that the Trump administration cannot end Obama’s DACA program and would have to go through another set of paperwork to do so. Trump said he would quickly refile the paperwork to kill DACA at that point in time.

Trump criticized House and Senate Democrats for not cooperating with him on DACA amnesty legislation. He said:

I’m taking care of DACA. I had a deal with the Democrats and they broke the deal. The DACA could have been taken care of two years ago, but the Democrats broke the deal. All of a sudden they just broke it for no reason. Actually, they had a court case that slightly went their way, and they said, ‘Oh, let’s not talk about the deal anymore.’ You remember that. We talked about it.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere revealed that the president is crafting an executive order related to immigration.

As the President announced today, he is working on an executive order to establish a merit-based immigration system to further protect U.S. workers,” Deere commented.

“Furthermore, the President has long said he is willing to work with Congress on a negotiated legislative solution to DACA, one that could include citizenship, along with strong border security and permanent merit-based reforms. This does not include amnesty,” Deere added. “Unfortunately, Democrats have continually refused these offers as they are opposed to anything other than totally open borders.

John Binder of Breitbart News highlighted some of the implications of a DACA amnesty:

A DACA amnesty would put more citizen children of illegal aliens — known as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left potentially with a $26 billion bill.

He added:

Additionally, about one-in-five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one-in-seven would go on Medicaid.

Binder concluded:

Any plan to give amnesty to DACA illegal aliens that does not also include provisions to halve legal immigration levels — the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants a year at the expense of America’s working and middle class — would give amnestied illegal aliens the opportunity to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country.

Trump’s remarks were met with pushback from legislators such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who believe that Trump’s decision was unconstitutional

“There is ZERO constitutional authority for a President to create a ‘road to citizenship’ by executive fiat,” Cruz tweeted. “It was unconstitutional when Obama issued executive amnesty, and it would be a HUGE mistake if Trump tries to illegally expand amnesty.”

The political implications of such an amnesty could be massive.

Based on migrant voting patterns, a number of traditional American freedoms such as the Second Amendment and free speech are potentially in danger if these trends continue in motion.

Trump must reject DACA and actually implement immigration restriction policies such as ending birthright citizenship, ending chain migration, fully funding the border wall, and implementing an immigration moratorium.

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