It happened… yesterday while the west coast was getting their day going and the east coast was enjoying their lunch break, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the devastating news that DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) would be phasing out in the next six months, that no new applications after September 5th would be reviewed and if your permit expires before March 2018, you would have until the end of October to file for renewal. No guarantees of course. Just that this was the rule of the law and that President Obama overstepped his powers by drafting this Executive Order—Unconstitutional is what Mr. Sessions called former President Obama.
But for those of us who didn’t study American Government or Constitutional Law, lets take a step back and discuss what an Executive Order entails of. Cornell Law School describes Executive Order as a declaration by the president or governor which has the force of law, and requiring no action by Congress or the state legislature. Meaning that on the basis of legality, it’s totally fair game. It may be challenged and overturned in the same manner DAPA’s Executive Order was overturned. DAPA was intended to offer legal relief in the manner that DACA does to undocumented youth, but for parents of American-born children.
So let’s go back to the drawing board. DAPA was challenged and due to the stalemate at the Supreme Court, the stay issued by the Federal Government, AKA the hold, became permanent making DAPA a dead Executive Order.
Executive Orders are nothing new. When I was studying Constitutional Law at the University of Washington, we learned that George W.H. Bush issued a strong 41 Executive Orders, while Bill Clinton issued 42, in contrast to Obama’s 44. Note that all of these presidents served two terms. Here is where it gets interesting: Presidential Signing Statements are signed in the hundreds. They serve a similar purpose as an Executive Order, just without all the noise, cameras and reporters. Mostly people in research and academia focus on these. Despite Bill Clinton winning the race again on Presidential Signing Statements, only a small fraction were challenging the law, while a majority of George W.H. Bush’s challenged the law.
Anyway, back to my original point, there are still checks and balances available when one is in disagreement with an Executive order, like the temporary travel ban issued by President Donald Trump this year was challenged and temporary suspended. Let’s not turn a blind eye and note that Trump has issued a total of 45 Executive Orders in less than 8 months in office. That is more than former President Obama issued in 8 years.
Attorney General Sessions indicated that former President Obama overstepped his executive power through issuing DACA and that the phasing out of the program was strictly to restore the law of the land. I am willing to entertain that DACA was a bandaid, because it was. Thousands of undocumented students and their allies rallied and pressured the White House for months asking for a pathway to citizenship. When Congress failed to pass a piece of legislation that would offer this sort of relief, President Obama offered temporary relief and no pathway to citizenship: a work permit, access to a social security number and the ability to have a driver’s license in some states.
DACA-mented folks were in the same competitive pool with others who do have legal status. So how is it that jobs were taken away from legal residents and citizens? I once saw a sign that said, If you’re worried about undocumented, non-English speaking, without a high school diploma people taking your jobs, then you deserve it. It doesn’t get more blunt than that.
The United States takes pride in having homegrown talent. Well, the DACAmented community is homegrown talent, with the only difference being that they were not born here. The United States has taken its competitive edge based on having the best of the best, the cream of the crop representing them on a global platform. Why does being DACAmented make you less of a competitor? DACAmented folks work to be the best of the best because we were raised to believe if you were the good immigrant, you would be rewarded with a green card (permanent residency card) AKA papers.
Life without DACA will be tough. Trust me, I know first hand the challenges of being an undocumented student, while working a minimum wage law, while convincing school administrators that they need to help me find scholarships, while reaching out to local business leaders asking them to sponsor my studies, while having just a handful of hours of sleep, while sharing a room with your five other siblings some times, while going to school with a grumbling stomach because your bank account in the negative because you just paid tuition and have no money to buy a snack while you’re on your college’s campus. But it can be done. We won’t be stopped. We can’t be stopped.
There still has not been a proposed resolution as to what happens to the 800,000 DACA recipients once their permits expire.
Despite DACA not being there for me while I was in school and despite my reality does not include not having legal documents anymore, I still felt like I was punched in the gut and someone reached into my wallet and stripped my documents away.
My DACAmented brothers and sisters, keep your head up.
My DACAmented allies, drive your representatives insane with all your calls and letters. I’ll be glad to mail you stamps and save you a trip to the post office, because what is a post office anyway. Haha!
DACA wasn’t found to be Unconstitutional or in disagreement with the law of the land because it wasn’t challenged. There were threats that suggested a challenge in court, but Attorney General Sessions who has a history of supporting a white supremacist agenda, told the President that he wouldn’t defend DACA and that was enough to make the President half of America elected because he had a backbone, lose his.
La lucha sigue!
GameOfGiveAndTake 