Nearly ten years after President Barack Obama created the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) via executive action, President Joe Biden is still trying to prop it up. Even after a federal judge in Texas recently ordered the Biden administration to halt all new applications for DACA, the administration has proposed a new rule to "fortify and preserve" the program, which shields younger illegal immigrants and those brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
The latest move isn't a surprise, since the administration announced at the time of the judge's ruling they would appeal it and seek to keep the program in place. The Department of Homeland Security even got caught continuing to process DACA applications in violation of the judge's order, which they claimed was a mistake.
What it means is DACA will continue to bounce back and forth through the courts, as it has for most of its existence. Art Arthur, law and policy fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, says the law is not on the president's side here. "The Supreme Court has said for about 120 years that Congress is the one that sets the laws as relates to immigration...who's allowed to come in, who has to be removed, and who can stay," he tells KTRH. "Therefore, the prospects (for DACA) in district court in Texas, in the Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals), and ultimately at the U.S. Supreme Court are not very good."
"This is something that really should be done statutorily, if it's going to be done at all."
Regardless of how DACA ultimately plays out in court, Arthur believes the mere effort to preserve it and other amnesty programs will only make the current border crisis worse. "The Biden administration seems to be following a policy of not wanting to enforce the immigration laws," he says. "That is a clear signal to aliens, but more importantly to smugglers, that now is the time to enter the United States to take advantage of any future amnesty or opportunity to stay here."