Luckily the Trump administration is incompetent

It seems that the Trump administration has continued to press to get rid of DACA and that the Supreme Court has now decided to hear the case:

The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration may shut down a program that shields some 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants from deportation, the court said on Friday.

The court will hear arguments in the case during its next term, which starts in October, and will probably issue its decision in the spring or summer of 2020, ensuring a fierce immigration debate over the outcome in the midst of the presidential campaign.

Since DACA was an executive order, the President has the right to change it but there are still rules that need to be followed and, like most things it does, the Trump administration didn’t do it properly according to courts:

In November, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled against the administration. It acknowledged that presidents have broad powers to alter the policies of earlier administrations but said the legal rationale offered by the Trump administration did not withstand scrutiny. The court also questioned “the cruelty and wastefulness of deporting productive young people to countries with which they have no ties.”

In May, a second federal appeals court, the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., issued a similar ruling.

Here is part of the ruling in the Virginia court:

The point is that the Department had before it at the time it rescinded DACA a reasoned analysis from the office tasked with providing legal advice to all executive branch agencies that supported the policy’s legality. Yet the Department changed course without any explanation for why that analysis was faulty. Cf. Fox Television Stations, 556 U.S. at 516 (“[A] reasoned explanation is needed for disregarding facts and circumstances that underlay . . . the prior policy.”).

Nor did the Department adequately account for the reliance interests that would be affected by its decision. Hundreds of thousands of people had structured their lives on the availability of deferred action during the over five years between the implementation of DACA and the decision to rescind. Although the government insists that Acting considered these interests in connection with her decision to rescind DACA, her Memo makes no mention of them.

We can assume more incompetence from the Trump administration but at some point they will actually get things right, so we need to get him out of office.

People to be deported

There is still no agreement on DACA but at least there’s no hurry:

“My status expires in August. Past August, I can’t see my future,” the 20-year-old said. “How can I prioritize class? You can’t sit in class and be expected to concentrate when your entire future is being decided on.”

But the situation could be more immediate than Rosenfeld thinks. After Congress failed to include a fix for DACA in the temporary budget deal — leading to a three-day government shutdown — a Feb. 8 deadline was set for addressing the program.
Then, last week, Trump announced proposed legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants, but also includes demands that some in Congress said they are unlikely to accept. Currently, DACA is set to expire March 5, and the White House said if there’s no deal, all DACA recipients will be subject to deportation.

There was a deal but Trump decided it wasn’t good enough and now he’s asking for more. Even if Democrats who’s to say that Trump doesn’t change his mind again and demand more.

And here’s the type of illegal that needs to be deported:

He immigrated to Florida from Venezuela with his mother and older sister when he was 6. They arrived legally on a visa that would have provided his family a path to citizenship, but then his mother was diagnosed with kidney cancer and died. When that happened, Rosenfeld’s legal status, and that of his sister, changed.
“The only fault I had is that my mom passed away,” he said. “Had my mom not passed away, I would be a citizen today.”

See, it’s all his fault–he should have stayed in Venezuela (really, read the comments to this or any similar article). I despair of humanity.

Fuck Trump

This has been a week that shows President Trump’s priorities. He doesn’t care about the environment:

The Trump administration Thursday moved to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades.
The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Georgia to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades.

…

The proposal comes less than a week after the Trump administration proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling imposed after the deadly 2010 rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He doesn’t care about the Dreamers:

“We want the wall,” Trump said at a press conference at Camp David in Maryland. “The wall is going to happen, or we’re not going to have DACA,” he said, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Democrats are fighting to restore.

He doesn’t care about people who fled war-torn countries:

The Trump administration said Monday it is ending special protections for Salvadoran immigrants, an action that could force nearly 200,000 to leave the US by September 2019 or face deportation.

He wants a return to the war on drugs:

“This is a straightforward rule of law issue,” Lelling responded. “Congress has unambiguously made it a federal crime to cultivate, distribute, and/or possess marijuana. As a law enforcement officer in the executive branch, it is my sworn responsibility to enforce that law.”

…

A congressional budget rider bars the Department of Justice from spending money on most prosecutions of state-licensed medical marijuana operations, meaning the state’s currently operating dispensaries should be safe for now.
However, that amendment is due to expire later this month along with the current federal budget. Sessions previously called on Congress to drop the language.

And to compound this, Trump has shown himself to be a coward.

He says he supports DACA but had to get rid of it because there were legal problems (there really weren’t any).  Then he said that Congress needed to do something and he supported that. Now he says he only supports it if he gets what he wants. Don’t be surprised if he adds more requirements.

The same is true for the people from El Salvador, he says Congress should actually pass a law instead of relying on extensions to the Temporary Protection. And anyway:

The months before then “will provide time with individuals with TPS [temporary protected status] to arrange for their departure, or if eligible, to do the necessary paperwork to remain in the United States,” a senior administration official told reporters on a call previewing the announcement.

Of course they don’t say how this will happen and they want to make it harder to legally immigrate to the US.

It isn’t that Trump doesn’t support ending DACA or sending people back who have been in the country for 20 years or cracking down on marijuana, he does. It’s just that he doesn’t want to be blamed if these turn out to be unpopular.

Trump punks out on DACA

So, Donald Trump has decided what to do with DACA now:

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would begin to unwind an Obama-era program that allows younger undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional but offering a partial delay to give Congress a chance to address the issue.

So, Trump is trying to pass the buck to Congress–note he doesn’t even pretend he will write a bill. And you’ll note that Trump was too much of a wimp to announce it himself:

In announcing the decision at the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions

What a bold president.

Now look at the statement:

As President, my highest duty is to defend the American people and the Constitution of the United States of America.  At the same time, I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents.

This is an example of Trump’s compassion:

Guillen’s father, Jesus Guillen, said he’d asked his son not to try and rescue people in the storm, but he insisted, saying he wanted to help people. He cried and prayed on Sunday afternoon as they pulled his son’s body from the water.

…

Alonso Guillen was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily lifted the threat of deportation for immigrants brought to the U.S. before they were 16, family members said.

…

“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea,” she said, weeping softly. “I’m asking God to give me strength.”

She said she hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border.

back to Trump’s statement:

In referencing the idea of creating new immigration rules unilaterally, President Obama admitted that “I can’t just do these things by myself” – and yet that is exactly what he did, making an end-run around Congress and violating the core tenets that sustain our Republic.

Officials from 10 States are suing over the program, requiring my Administration to make a decision regarding its legality. The Attorney General of the United States, the Attorneys General of many states, and virtually all other top legal experts have advised that the program is unlawful and unconstitutional and cannot be successfully defended in court.

This from a President who signed an executive order about immigration that caused chaos because it was so poorly written and was issued a stay because it was so likely to be found unconstitutional.

Therefore, in the best interests of our country, and in keeping with the obligations of my office, the Department of Homeland Security will begin an orderly transition and wind-down of DACA, one that provides minimum disruption.  While new applications for work permits will not be accepted, all existing work permits will be honored until their date of expiration up to two full years from today.  Furthermore, applications already in the pipeline will be processed, as will renewal applications for those facing near-term expiration.  This is a gradual process, not a sudden phase out.  Permits will not begin to expire for another six months, and will remain active for up to 24 months.  Thus, in effect, I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act.

…

It is now time for Congress to act!

Most Presidents who want something done will present legislation to be introduced in Congress, not this one. Like with healthcare and taxes, he expects Congress to do all the work and he expects to get the credit. If things go wrong then it’s not his fault. What a coward.