Now that the rule of law means something again we can solve the DACA problem the right way. The left and right will have to sacrifice a sacred cow or two, but we can do the right thing by these young people. Personally I think that large sections of the border wall should be built in the most strategic locations to strangle the flow of illegal border crossings (it's never going to get close to being even 50% built, ever), E-Verify with strong punishments for employers who violate it (1-3 years in prison, 1 year minimum and $50,000 fine per incident) and more detention centers and immigration judges. I could also see a $500-1,000 annual tax on the 1040 on illegals until they pay $25,000 into the treasury.
Congress’s Chance to Do Its Job and Solve the Dreamers’ Dilemma
A bipartisan majority supported Obama’s DACA goal, but not necessarily his unilateral action.
Demonstrators in Washington, Sept. 5. PHOTO: ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES
By
Jason L. Riley
Sept. 5, 2017 7:12 p.m. ET
67 COMMENTS
Republicans have spent the past five years grumbling about how President Obama used executive power to give temporary work permits to people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Now GOP lawmakers have a chance to put up or shut up.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration is ending this program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but with a six-month delay intended to give Congress time to do its job and address the issue with legislation. Mr. Trump made a campaign pledge to rescind all executive actions taken by President Obama, who often acted unilaterally when Congress wouldn’t bend to his will. But Mr. Trump’s view of DACA recipients, also known as “Dreamers,” has been more complicated.
The president believes that his calls for a border wall and his tough rhetoric on immigrant gangs and sanctuary cities helped him get elected, and perhaps it did. He also understands, though, that all illegal immigration doesn’t warrant the same response. “We love the Dreamers,” he said last week from the Oval Office. “We think the Dreamers are terrific.” At the same time, the administration has continued to insist that DACA is unlawful and can’t withstand legal challenge. In a Tuesday statement explaining why he rescinded the program, Mr. Trump said: “The legislative branch, not the executive branch, writes these laws—this is the bedrock of our constitutional system, which I took a solemn oath to preserve, protect, and defend.”
A Pew survey taken in 2012, shortly after Mr. Obama issued his DACA order, put its support at only 46%. Yet 70% of the respondents—including 53% of Republicans—said illegal immigrants in the U.S. “should have a way to stay in the country legally.” In other words, a bipartisan majority supported Mr. Obama’s goal but not necessarily his method. Process matters, and Republicans now have an opportunity to get it right.
Finding a way to avoid deporting about 800,000 DACA recipients would seem to be a no-brainer politically. In an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll last week, 64% of Americans said they supported DACA, and 71% said that “most undocumented immigrants working in the United States” should be “offered a chance to apply for legal status.” For comparison, Mr. Trump’s approval rating was 39%. An amnesty for DACA recipients wouldn’t be popular with the president’s base, but Dreamers are still far more popular than Mr. Trump.
Republican governors such as Rick Scott of Florida, an outspoken supporter of the president, have come to the defense of DACA immigrants. So have business groups and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill like Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Speaker Paul Ryan, who’s convinced that a legislative fix is possible. Measures already in the works include a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois. To earn legal status under their plan, modeled on DACA, you’d have to pass a background check, pay a fee, be employed or enlisted in the military, and speak English, among other requirements.
The big unknown is what Mr. Trump, who says he’s providing “a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” will demand in return for protecting Dreamers. Will the “really big fixes” he called for Tuesday include funding for a border wall and more detention facilities, or new E-Verify requirements on businesses? One demand may be significant reductions in legal immigration, which Republicans would be wise to resist.
Mr. Trump praised the Raise Act, introduced earlier this year by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, which purports to put U.S. immigration policy on path to a merit-based system like Canada’s or Australia’s. In practice however, the bill wouldn’t boost skilled immigration and would cut legal immigration overall by about 50% over the next decade, according to an analysisby the Cato Institute.
An entry system that served America well 100 years ago may not be suited for a 21st-century economy, and fixing immigration involves more than fixing the border. But the two are of a piece, and making it difficult to come to the U.S. legally is the best way to encourage unlawful entries. Moving the U.S. away from a system that heavily favors family ties and toward one based more on skills might well be the way to go, but not at the expense of an overall reduction to immigration.
Some 10,000 baby boomers reach retirement age every day, and we’re hearing much more lately about labor shortages than job shortages, even in industries—agriculture, construction, manufacturing—where higher wages are being offered. Now is probably not the time to drastically limit employers’ access to labor. Reducing legal immigration is where Republicans in Congress should draw the line.
Appeared in the September 6, 2017, print edition.
Congress’s Chance to Do Its Job and Solve the Dreamers’ Dilemma
A bipartisan majority supported Obama’s DACA goal, but not necessarily his unilateral action.
Demonstrators in Washington, Sept. 5. PHOTO: ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES
By
Jason L. Riley
Sept. 5, 2017 7:12 p.m. ET
67 COMMENTS
Republicans have spent the past five years grumbling about how President Obama used executive power to give temporary work permits to people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Now GOP lawmakers have a chance to put up or shut up.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration is ending this program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but with a six-month delay intended to give Congress time to do its job and address the issue with legislation. Mr. Trump made a campaign pledge to rescind all executive actions taken by President Obama, who often acted unilaterally when Congress wouldn’t bend to his will. But Mr. Trump’s view of DACA recipients, also known as “Dreamers,” has been more complicated.
The president believes that his calls for a border wall and his tough rhetoric on immigrant gangs and sanctuary cities helped him get elected, and perhaps it did. He also understands, though, that all illegal immigration doesn’t warrant the same response. “We love the Dreamers,” he said last week from the Oval Office. “We think the Dreamers are terrific.” At the same time, the administration has continued to insist that DACA is unlawful and can’t withstand legal challenge. In a Tuesday statement explaining why he rescinded the program, Mr. Trump said: “The legislative branch, not the executive branch, writes these laws—this is the bedrock of our constitutional system, which I took a solemn oath to preserve, protect, and defend.”
A Pew survey taken in 2012, shortly after Mr. Obama issued his DACA order, put its support at only 46%. Yet 70% of the respondents—including 53% of Republicans—said illegal immigrants in the U.S. “should have a way to stay in the country legally.” In other words, a bipartisan majority supported Mr. Obama’s goal but not necessarily his method. Process matters, and Republicans now have an opportunity to get it right.
Finding a way to avoid deporting about 800,000 DACA recipients would seem to be a no-brainer politically. In an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll last week, 64% of Americans said they supported DACA, and 71% said that “most undocumented immigrants working in the United States” should be “offered a chance to apply for legal status.” For comparison, Mr. Trump’s approval rating was 39%. An amnesty for DACA recipients wouldn’t be popular with the president’s base, but Dreamers are still far more popular than Mr. Trump.
Republican governors such as Rick Scott of Florida, an outspoken supporter of the president, have come to the defense of DACA immigrants. So have business groups and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill like Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Speaker Paul Ryan, who’s convinced that a legislative fix is possible. Measures already in the works include a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois. To earn legal status under their plan, modeled on DACA, you’d have to pass a background check, pay a fee, be employed or enlisted in the military, and speak English, among other requirements.
The big unknown is what Mr. Trump, who says he’s providing “a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” will demand in return for protecting Dreamers. Will the “really big fixes” he called for Tuesday include funding for a border wall and more detention facilities, or new E-Verify requirements on businesses? One demand may be significant reductions in legal immigration, which Republicans would be wise to resist.
Mr. Trump praised the Raise Act, introduced earlier this year by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, which purports to put U.S. immigration policy on path to a merit-based system like Canada’s or Australia’s. In practice however, the bill wouldn’t boost skilled immigration and would cut legal immigration overall by about 50% over the next decade, according to an analysisby the Cato Institute.
An entry system that served America well 100 years ago may not be suited for a 21st-century economy, and fixing immigration involves more than fixing the border. But the two are of a piece, and making it difficult to come to the U.S. legally is the best way to encourage unlawful entries. Moving the U.S. away from a system that heavily favors family ties and toward one based more on skills might well be the way to go, but not at the expense of an overall reduction to immigration.
Some 10,000 baby boomers reach retirement age every day, and we’re hearing much more lately about labor shortages than job shortages, even in industries—agriculture, construction, manufacturing—where higher wages are being offered. Now is probably not the time to drastically limit employers’ access to labor. Reducing legal immigration is where Republicans in Congress should draw the line.
Appeared in the September 6, 2017, print edition.
