Well, for one thing, the administration is facing lawsuits form 10 states over the constitutionality of the EO, so putting it back in Congress’ hands takes those out of play. Plus, what Congress passes is almost certainly to different in some way so Trump can then claim that it’s not the same as Obama’s policy.
I think you my be underestimating the chances of something getting through congress initially. I think there would be enough support for that in a form more or less equivalent to the current one. I agree there is not enough support to overcome a veto, unless the issue became secondary and it just turned into something to spite Trump on, which really about anything these days has a chance to turn into.
Which Is my guess is the reason for the delay. Trump is so paranoid of looking like a loser, he is doesn’t want to even take a chance of pushing the issue and getting into a position where he could be overridden, so he did something vague and indecisive enough that it might look somewhat statesmenlike while kicking it down the road.
Could be Trump’s backed himself into a corner on ending DACA and figures he can say he kept his promise, then toss the whole problem to Congress and let them take the blame (a) from immigration hard-liners if they enact protections or (b) from everyone else if they fail.
He has to fix things so that nothing unpopular is ever his fault BUT he can always take credit for stuff people like, even if he had nothing to do with it. That’s Trump’s definition of being a winner.
He is never encumbered by moral principles, or indeed, any kind of principles. They just get in the way (assuming he even knows what a principle is).
This almost made sense to me for a sec. Delay instead of enforcing it now and then risking that Congress passes something after. But you still end up in the same place. A bill on his desk.
Or he could claim the new bill is totally different from that evil Obama’s evil handiwork, so it’s okay to sign it, what with all those fine upstanding patriotic CEO’s supporting it and all.
I haven’t been following, but I assume the potential bill to be passed in coming months would be a bipartisan thing that would give things to both sides, including provisions that would supersede DACA (i.e., accomplish the same things and then some, while allowing Trump to say he did away with DACA as an executive order).
Wow. Not sure why no one has mentioned Rep. Paul Ryan, yet.
Ryan specifically said that DACA should be established legislatively. In his opinion, it’s not a valid use of Presidential power. But he is in favor of the concept, and wants Congress to implement it.
Trump’s in a stronger position if court rulings go his way in the interim. And if Congress fails to enact the program into legislation, as seems likely, he’s further empowered to say that he has a mandate to stop the program.
Ryan says a lot of things (remember ACA repeal), but he’s Mr. Irrelevant because he has no constituency and little ability to deliver on what he says he wants.
The strategy to get this thru Congress depends, firstly, on the Democrats. Then Ryan needs to get enough votes from House GOP members. And let’s not forget he 60 vote hurdle this has to pass in the Senate.
DACA (as Obama, correctly, stated several times in the past) is outside of the powers of the Executive. It was a blatant Presidential overreach. Trump is fixing this by killing it as a Presidential overreach/EO and putting the decision back into Congressional hands, where it belongs.
Him signing it when it comes to him as a new law from Congress is fully consistent with this position.
Depends. If a bill is put forward which basically reiterates DACA, then the Dems will probably welcome it. Certain Republicans won’t, but it should still pass.
If certain poison pills that have been floated get tacked on - funding for that ridiculous border wall - then it won’t get much Democratic support, and the far-right Republicans may not accept it either.
Can someone explain the logic behind these lawsuits to me? It sounds like they’re suing the government for following the law and ending their deferment of action, right?
Here’s a bit of information about DACA - including a little bit about the lawsuit against it. I was a bit surprised that the DREAM act - where we’re getting the term “Dreamers” from - damn near passed.
Short version, the attorneys general of ten states are threatening to sue the Federal government over DACA, calling it an unconstitutional overreach of executive power. The deadline is Sept 5th. One attorney general - from Tennessee - has since changed his mind.
Basically, I think, Trump is shoving the ball into Congress’s* court. No matter how things go, some proportion voters are gonna be pissed. He’d rather throw Senators and Reps under the bus.
(That, or it fits into my darker theory, that Trump is deliberately sowing as much division and discord as he can, and hampering the work of the government. Goodness knows, Congress had enough on it’s plate already for the September session, and this ain’t gonna help. I’ll give it some more thought, though. Goodness knows his stupidity, pettiness, and greed are more than enough to explain his behaviour.)
*Congress’s? Not sure if that’s right. Congress’ doesn’t look right either…
Trump wants to please his hardliner supporters and fend off criticism from Bannon. He’s basically saying “I’m going to keep dark people out of the country like I said I would, but I’m gonna give congress a chance to take the blame for it.” He can’t be criticized for killing DACA and he can’t be criticized for promoting it either.