Why is DACA unconstitutional?
In June 2016, the Supreme Court ruled 4-4 in a case that challenged Obama’s DACA program. With Trump-nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch, a staunch conservative, now on the court, it is unlikely DACA would survive a Supreme Court challenge.
Before the Supreme Court case, federal Judge Andrew Hansen, ordered a halt to DACA expansion and its companion program, DAPA, which proposed rules for parents of undocumented immigrants. On appeal, the case was assigned to United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which blocked DAPA and DACA expansion in late 2015.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government has for many years failed to faithfully enforce our immigration laws. This has inevitably encouraged more and more illegal immigration. DACA is the pinnacle of non-enforcement; not only does it protect illegal immigrants from deportation, it provides benefits that by law are reserved for American citizens and legal immigrants. Why come to the U.S. legally if you can acquire many of the same benefits by coming illegally?
So the federal courts prevented President Obama from implementing the similar “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents” program or DAPA. Like DACA, DAPA provided an administrative amnesty for illegal aliens and gave them work authorizations and access to government benefits.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction entered by a lower federal court against the DAPA program. Under our Constitution, Congress has plenary authority over immigration; the president only has authority that has been delegated to him by Congress. As the Fifth Circuit said, the fact that the president declined to enforce the law and remove illegal aliens “does not transform presence deemed unlawful by Congress into lawful presence and confer eligibility for otherwise unavailable benefits based on that change.” Obama acted beyond his constitutional authority when he provided through DAPA pseudo-amnesty and government benefits that had not been authorized by Congress.
The DACA program suffers from exactly the same constitutional infirmity. The place to have the debate about what to do about illegal aliens who were minors when they came to this country is in the halls of Congress, not the White House. Failure to correct this overreach will only set a dangerous precedent that weakens our constitutional balance of powers. (Hot Air)
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