Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about President Trump’s repeal of DACA and the future of immigration policy in Congress.
Marlow noted that President Trump has greatly softened his rhetoric against DACA and even expressed a desire to legalize many of the aliens covered by it, even as he acts to repeal former President Barack Obama’s unlawful executive orders.
“I think he was duty-bound to rescind the order,” DeSantis said of Trump’s decision.
“It’s not constitutional,” he explained. “The attorney general is right; it’s not defensible in court. You had these state attorney generals who were bearing down and getting ready to bring this case. I think the president’s hand was forced with the prospect of those AGs bringing the lawsuit.”
“When he did it, how the media has reacted, how most politicians – Democrats and even a lot of Republicans – react; the sole focus is on what can Congress do to benefit an illegal immigrant?” DeSantis complained.
“If you’re getting an amnesty, an amnesty recipient, yeah, they’re going to want that; that’s good for them. There is zero talk, or very little talk, about how any of these immigration policies will affect the American people. Are you going to do things that are going to further incentivize illegal immigration? Are you going to do things that are expanding chain migration?” he asked.
“The argument with DACA is that these folks were minors when they came, so it’s not their fault. I think that much is true, but under things like the amnesty proposals because of chain migration, someone that is given amnesty can then bring in the parents who did knowingly violate the law,” he observed.
“None of that stuff is really discussed very much. I’m surprised the president hasn’t highlighted some of that because I think his immigration program was popular when he ran. He was always seeing it through the prism of what is best for the American people. It’s not just what is best for the person who is in the country illegally,” he maintained.
DeSantis said it was also important to consider the effect of amnesty programs on legal immigrants and naturalized citizens who have “gone through a painstaking process.”
“When they see calls to create new processes for people who didn’t follow the rules that they do – I’ll tell you, I’ve talked to a lot of those folks in Florida, and that really gets them at their core. They feel like doing it the right way is not the smart thing to do, which is not what you want for our country. So there’s very little perspective from the legal immigrant community,” he said.
“But when Obama did his executive amnesties, both DACA and DAPA, it was reported, I think conclusively, that diverted so many resources, to try to give the executive amnesty to as many people as you could, that the people who were in line to be legal immigrants, their processes were noticeably slowed down,” he pointed out.
“That is just proof in the pudding that there are all kinds of effects on American citizens, on would-be legal immigrants who will be American citizens, and the focus is never on any of that, but for a few outlets,” he lamented.
“That’s the thing: the American people, when you talk to them about immigration, they want to know how it’s best for the country and how it’s best for the American people. They’re not against immigration, but they don’t want policies that have no connection to what’s good for American workers and what’s good for American society,” said DeSantis.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern.
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