The day after Democrats held “No Kings Day” protests to accuse Pres. Donald Trump of acting like a king, former Democrat President Barack Obama bragged that he had successfully imposed his will on Americans by edict, rather than through Congress.
On Saturday, Democrats protesters across the U.S. gather to make amorphous accusations that the Pres. Trump is threatening Democracy by behaving like a king, ruling with unchecked power and bypassing laws and court rulings.
But, on Sunday, former Pres. Obama boasted that, as president, he had ruled by edict, without the consent of Congress or any previously passed law:
“Thirteen years ago, my administration acted to protect young people who were American in every single way but one: on paper.”
Obama declared illegal aliens to be “American,” despite the fact that they unlawfully entered and were unlawfully present in the U.S.
Obama was referring to how he used an executive action to disregard immigration law and institute his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy – which had been repeated rejected by Congress – to allow illegal aliens who entered the U.S. as minors to remain in the country.
Obama touted DACA as an “example” of how a president, such as himself, can “fix” the nation’s immigration system on his own, simply by issuing a decree.
“In fact, it’s the only way,” Obama declared:
“DACA was an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. And it’s an example worth remembering today, when families with similar backgrounds who just want to live, work, and support their communities, are being demonized and treated as enemies. We can fix our broken immigration system while still recognizing our common humanity and treating each other with dignity and respect. In fact, it’s the only way we ever will.”
After Obama left the White House in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the legally dubious nature of Obama’s unilateral act:
“The Obama administration chose to deploy DACA by Executive Branch memorandum—despite the fact that Congress affirmatively rejected such a program in the normal legislative process on multiple occasions. The constitutionality of this action has been widely questioned since its inception.”
….
“The Attorney General sent a letter to the Department on September 4, 2017, articulating his legal determination that DACA “was effectuated by the previous administration through executive action, without proper statutory authority and with no established end-date, after Congress' repeated rejection of proposed legislation that would have accomplished a similar result. Such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch.”
“The letter further stated that because DACA ‘has the same legal and constitutional defects that the courts recognized as to DAPA, it is likely that potentially imminent litigation would yield similar results with respect to DACA.’”
Today, a U.S. Appeals Court decision is blocking (USCIS) from processing or granting any new DACA requests.