DACA at 5: Open Border Activists Call for Trump’s Support, States Threaten Lawsuit

Obama / Joe Biden
AP File Photo/Susan Walsh
Bob Price
Washington, D.C.

Open border activists marked the fifth anniversary of former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program by hitting the streets and the Internet. They called on President Donald Trump to save the amnesty program while ten states, led by Texas, have threatened to sue if the federal government does not put a stop to the program.

Breitbart Texas reported that the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, West Virginia, and the governor of Idaho sent a letter to the Trump Administration in June asking for an end to the DACA program.

The letter cites the ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas that blocked the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) after Texas and other states filed suit. Breitbart Texas reported that Judge Hanen issued a temporary ban on implementing the executive amnesty program in 2015. An appellate court upheld Hanen’s order and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case letting the lower court ruling stand.

In June, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly wiped out former President Obama’s DAPA program, Breitbart News reported.

The 10-state coalition compared DACA and DAPA stating, “the Executive Branch does not have the unilateral power to confer lawful presence and work authorization on unlawfully present aliens simply because the Executive chooses not to remove them.”

In the meantime, the “fast-growing amnesty” is still growing and almost 900,000 work permits and Social Security cards have been given to illegal immigrants who claim they are 36 years old or less, as reported by Breitbart News. Less than one-in-ten of the 850,000 adults who are DACA-eligible have a two-year vocational college qualification or better, and three-quarters of these illegals earn less than $25,000 a year, and only one-quarter earn enough to meet their expenses.

Breitbart Texas reported on August 3 that an immigration think tank released a report that concludes it is more cost-effective to deport illegal aliens than to keep them in the U.S. The price for American taxpayers is $10,854 per illegal alien removed, compared to their average lifetime net fiscal drain of $65,292. Other estimates put the cost to Americans of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens at $746.3 billion for the entire population – a total lifetime cost in the $1.4 – $1.5 trillion range. The average lifetime net fiscal drain was determined by looking at the taxes paid by the average illegal immigrant minus the services they use. This figure does not include the costs for their children or descendants. Looking at their descendants “adds $16,998 to the net fiscal drain.”

#DefendDACA was trending on Twitter on Tuesday, and organizations and immigration proponents also pushed the hashtag #SaveTPS (Temporary Protected Status).

“Temporary Protected Status” is the status granted by USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) “to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of countries), who are already in the United States. Eligible individuals without nationality who last resided in the designated country may also be granted TPS.” The secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security selects the countries that qualify for TPS.

Protests were held at the offices of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and @CASAforall claimed that 25 DACA protesters were arrested outside of the White House.

Protesters also marched down the streets of Washington, D.C.

Another protest occurred at Trump Tower in New York starting at approximately 5 p.m. EDT.

The fate of DACA rests in the hands of President Trump for the moment. After September 1, that burden could move to a federal judge if the coalition of states follow through on their threatened lawsuit.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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