President Donald Trump just lost another one in the courts, with a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting the administrations request to lift a nationwide injunction against his rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Get ready for a tweetstorm.
The decision was essentially an incremental step in the legal fight over the Obama-era DACA program, which grants protections and work permits to some 700,000 people living here illegally after having arrived as children. Obama crafted the policy after Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, which would have offered a reprieve from deportation and a path to citizenship for people who have been raised and educated as Americans, and whose arrival here was no fault of their own.
Granting relief to the so-called Dreamers (after the failed Dream Act, which passed the House in 2010 but received only 55 of the 60 Senate votes necessary to bring it to the floor) is widely popular with voters. But the congressional conservatives including some Democrats have been able to bottle it up. DACA status does not grant a path to citizenship, but it grants a renewable two-year deferral from deportation and a work permit.
Of course, such a good idea cant last under Trump, who in September 2017 ordered the program rescinded, arguing a president does not have the authority under immigration laws to do what Obama had done. Its an odd argument, a sitting president asking the courts to rule that he has less power than his predecessor had exercised, but thats how Trump framed it. I suspect his decision had more to do with unrolling an Obama program than with any thought-out analysis of the limits of executive power.
But Trump also said he felt for the Dreamers predicament and wanted to do something good for them, and told Congress to fix the problem he created by ending the deferrals. Congress, of course, did not rise to the challenge, though in truth Trump sabotaged chances of advancing a bill by linking it to funding for his silly wall.
DACA recipients and others affected by the rescission sued and won a nationwide injunction after lower courts ruled that they were likely to succeed in their challenge that rescinding DACA was an arbitrary and capricious act by the administration.
So here we are, the injunction still in place, the legal challenge proceeding, and the DACA recipients still in limbo.
Which brings up an idea for the incoming Democratic majority in the House. Call the presidents bluff and as soon as you convene, pass a humane and pragmatic bill granting legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers who meet the general requirements, including a record clean of serious crimes. And then work with Trump to get it through the Senate.
It may not fly, but starting off the session by passing a popular measure might signal that the political class can actually get something done that is in the nations interest, rather than sitting around grinding axes.
