WASHINGTON, DC — Today, America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel, Gene Hamilton, responded to the Biden Department of Homeland Security’s proposed rule to “preserve and fortify” the unconstitutional and illegal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. During a record-setting surge of illegal alien minors crossing our southern border, the Biden Administration is making a clear political play to bolster the Obama-era DACA program.
Statement From America First Vice-President Gene Hamilton:
“In 2012, after former President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged that he was not a “king” and lacked the authority to unilaterally change the law, the Department of Homeland Security unilaterally created the DACA program through a memorandum issued by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. President Obama and his administration knew they lacked the legal authority to create DACA but did it anyway to appease the desires of radical advocates. After years of legal maneuvering, on July 16, 2021, Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an Order finding the DACA program to violate the law, and vacated the DACA memorandum entirely. And yet, President Biden’s Administration has now sought to continue—through formal rulemaking in the middle of an unprecedented border crisis—a program that is undoubtedly unconstitutional, unlawful, and completely lacking in any authority whatsoever.
All Americans who believe in the rule of law should oppose the Biden Administration’s latest proposal to further “preserve and fortify” a blatantly unlawful program. The Biden Administration’s commitment to continuing to violate the law—and exercising a power that only Congress possesses—continues an erosion of the rule of law that has now gone on for nearly a decade. This will not stand,” Gene Hamilton said.
Read Judge Hanen’s Order here.
Read the proposed rule and submit a comment about it here.
To schedule an engagement with American First Legal, please email [email protected].
