Nine states have asked a Texas federal judge to shut down the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on the grounds that the president exceeded his constitutional authority by unilaterally renewing the immigration policy without approval from Congress.
“This lawsuit is about the scope of executive power, not the wisdom of any particular immigration policy. No President can unilaterally override Congress’s duly enacted laws simply because he prefers different policy choices,” the states said in their filing.
This is Biden’s second bite at the DACA apple, and it didn’t work out so well for him the first time. The courts slapped him down in October on a technicality.
But the Supreme Court struck down Obama/Biden’s definition of “executive discretion.”
“If there were ever any doubt that DACA’s central premise was false, it evaporated when the U.S. Supreme Court held that ‘the DACA Memorandum does not announce a passive non-enforcement policy.’ Rather, ‘it created a program for conferring affirmative immigration relief.’ That confirmed this Court’s prior determination that DACA ‘institute[d] a program that gives lawful presence, work authorization, and multiple other benefits to 1.5 million people.”
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The case was heard by the Supreme Court in 2019 and was decided the following year in a 5-4 vote, with the country’s highest court arguing the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Former President Donald Trump vowed to end the program. Biden has promised to defend it.
The states argued in 2021 that DACA was unlawful and U.S. District Court Andrew Hanen ultimately agreed. In his ruling, which was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last year, Hanen blocked first-time DACA applications but allowed current DACA recipients to continue renewing their status.
The “final rule — as the latest manifestation of the DACA program — is substantively unlawful for the same reasons as the DACA Memorandum. The Court should declare it unlawful and unconstitutional, vacate it in its entirety, and permanently enjoin its implementation (with a prudent transition for existing DACA recipients),” the filing states.
Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden have desperately tried an end run around the Constitution. And the courts have knocked them back every time. Clearly, the Constitution provides for Congress to make immigration law. First Obama, then Trump, and now Biden have all run afoul of the separation of powers. When some president decides to deal with the immigration issue legally, they will introduce legislation in Congress to that end.
