Background Press Call on the Administration's Actions on the DACA Program
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The administration was obviously very disappointed in Chief Justice Roberts’s decision at the Supreme Court a few weeks back.
The administration continues to have significant doubts about the policy - the DACA policy’s legality and the negative consequences that ensue from that policy for law enforcement, child welfare, and overall border security.
It’s important to note here, at the outset, that the Court did not rule that Obama’s program was lawful. The issue that the Court reached in its decision was only that the administration had insufficiently justified its wind-down of the DACA program. The court agreed that the administration can, in fact, pursue a wind-down of the DACA program.
And it’s also worth noting that even with the Court’s disposition, there is still significant ongoing litigation in challenging the DACA program in several federal district court jurisdictions across the country.
The administration is now undertaking a comprehensive review of the DACA program and the justifications that have been offered for winding DACA down, including its illegality and the negative effect the program has on what I’d call “immigration behavior,” including smuggling and illegal crossings.
When the administration next acts on DACA, it will be on the basis of the comprehensive review of the substantive legal and legal policy justifications offered for winding down the program.
Obviously, to do this correctly and thoughtfully, the review will have to take time. We won’t weigh in on how long that will take because it’s a question of a careful review of all the documentation that was provided to Deputy Secretary Duke, Attorney General Sessions, Secretary Nielsen, in the formation of their memos.
In the meantime, the administration will take the following actions on the existing DACA program:
All initial requests and application fees submitted for new filings will be rejected without prejudice should the policy be retained - the DACA policy be retained following the administration’s review.
We will adjudicate all applications for renewal on a case-by-case basis, consistent with immigration statute, providing one year, rather than the existing two-year renewal.
And consistent with this policy and the reasoning behind the original Napolitano departmental memo, all applications for advance parole will be rejected absent extraordinary circumstances.
The forthcoming memo issued today from the Department of Homeland Security will lay out the background and be pending actions in greater detail.
I’ll just say here, in conclusion: These actions will limit the scope of the program while DHS and the administration review its legality, the justifications for a possible wind-down, and other considerations relevant to deciding whether to keep or wind down the DACA policy.
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https://publicpool.kinja.com/subject-background-press-call-on-the-administrations-a-1844534836