WhatFinger

Obama often misappropriated the term "prosecutorial discretion," but rarely as blatantly as he did here

People will freak, but Trump is right to end DACA

By Dan Calabrese ——--September 1, 2017

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Reports this morning indicate it's only a matter of time before President Trump ends DACA, which was the Obama-instituted policy that defers immigration action against undocumented people brought into the country when they were under 16. It was easy to be sympathetic toward most of these people, since it wasn't their choice to come here illegally and many of them are creating no problems by being here.

Obama often misappropriated the term "prosecutorial discretion," but rarely as blatantly as he did here

But DACA represents an abuse of executive power and a complete abdication of the rule of law. National Review's editors expound nicely on these points:
We understand the hesitation, since many of the beneficiaries of this amnesty have sympathetic stories, but as a matter of fidelity to our constitutional system and his campaign promises, Trump must end DACA. If we are going to amnesty an entire class of people, it should obviously be done through the democratic process and, in our view, happen only in exchange for reforms to the immigration system. DACA contravenes the elementary principle that the legislative branch ought to pass laws and the executive branch ought to enforce them. In 2012, after Congress rejected the DREAM Act, President Obama issued the policy by unilateral decree. Under DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — illegal immigrants under the age of 37 can apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for deferred status. And while the Obama administration pretended the policy would be implemented via “prosecutorial discretion,” with each case considered individually, in practice, USCIS officials say, any illegal immigrant who appears eligible is granted deferred status — which comes with benefits such as a work permit, a Social Security number, and a driver’s license. More than 750,000 illegal immigrants currently enjoy this functional amnesty.
Obama often misappropriated the term "prosecutorial discretion," but rarely as blatantly as he did here. The correct use of the term would mean that a prosecutor looks at an individual case and decides if it warrants action against a suspect, based on the evidence in the case and a whole host of other factors. Obama tried to twist the phrase to mean that entire classes of people would never be charged with a crime, or that entire laws themselves would never be enforced.

That is not prosecutorial discretion. That's the president unilaterally changing the law

That is not prosecutorial discretion. That's the president unilaterally changing the law. Ending DACA doesn't mean that we're going to round up these people tomorrow and ship them all back to wherever they came from. It means we're going to use real prosecutorial discretion, looking at each case on its merits and prioritizing where to take action. And when circumstnaces warrant, it's possible someone who's been here since their youth will be sent back. That would obviously be unwelcome news for that person, but the law is the law and no country can survive if it wantonly ignores its own laws but doesn't have the courage to actually change them via the legislative process. That's what the left wants to do here - keep the laws on the books but simply ignore them at the whim of the president. Or I should say, at the whim of the last president. When this president tries to actually enforce the laws that are already on the books, people seem to freak out. I'd venture to say they're freaking out more over who is enforcing the law, but the fact remains that the open borders crowd has an agenda of simply letting people come into this country illegally and doing nothing about it. That can't continue.

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Dan Calabrese——

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.

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