What Should Be the Fate of DACA?

The simple answer is that President Obama acted unconstitutionally when he issued an executive order refusing to enforce sections of America’s immigration law. 

That order, entitled “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) forbade, “temporarily”, deportation of individuals who were brought into this country by parents who were themselves illegal immigrants. 

The policy was in direct violation of the Constitutional mandate that the President of the United States “take care that the laws be faithfully executed…”.

Would that a simple answer suffices.  The illegal DACA order was the basis of federal immigration policy for the past four years.  Expecting its revocation to return the immigration situation to the way it was prior to President Obama’s unconstitutional action is akin to trying to stuff the genie back into the bottle.

The beneficiaries of Obama’s actions – 800,000 dreamers – were told they could stay.  Now, however, they are again at risk of being forced to leave.

Their ages and circumstances (they did not enter the U.S. illegally on their own) make for an awkward situation for the DACA opponent relying on constitutional grounds.

Of course, Obama’s fiat should be voided, but we as a nation have an obligation to not merely right a wrong but to make amends to those mislead by the DACA order.

Of course, the mess is Obama’s doing.  But it’s not fair to punish the  Dreamers for his misconduct.

And there is also the obvious political reality.  Bluntly put, the otherwise law-abiding Dreamers are a sympathetic lot.  Their plight, in the public’s mind, demands a compassionate resolution and a path to legal residency, if not citizenship. 

The Sensible Conservative is a firm Constitutionalist who does not hesitate to condemn DACA, but the general public is usually not concerned with legal niceties:  their focus is far more likely to be on the emotional aspects of the issue. 

Politically, to oppose relief for the Dreamers is to be on the unpopular side.

For Republicans who are so often depicted by the left as mean-spirited and heartless, that would be a particularly bad place to be.  The left would be gleeful if the GOP would aid its efforts to promulgate that negative and very false stereotype.