Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said he doesn’t understand what the State of Texas is asking for in filing a lawsuit to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the Texas senator told a group of businessmen, “I honestly don’t understand what the state is asking for” in filing a lawsuit to stop the program. The statement reportedly came Friday afternoon in Dallas during a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber. “Right now, the issue looks like it’s going all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. They’re gonna decide whether DACA can be ended.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined with six other states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government asking that the “unconstitutional Obama-era DACA program” be ended, Breitbart Texas reported.
The following day, the seven states filed for a temporary nationwide injunction to immediately stop the government from accepting new applications and applications for renewals.
“Last September, President Trump agreed to phase out DACA by March 5 after Attorney General Paxton led a 10-state coalition requesting he do so or face a court challenge, officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office wrote in a statement provided to Breitbart Texas. “But federal judges in California, New York and Washington, D.C., blocked the wind down, and the D.C. Circuit Court on April 24 gave the Trump administration 90 days to fully restore DACA.
“Our lawsuit is about the rule of law, not the wisdom of any particular immigration policy,” Attorney General Paxton said in a written statement on Tuesday. “Texas has argued for years that the federal executive branch lacks the power to unilaterally grant unlawfully present aliens lawful presence and work authorization. Left intact, DACA sets a dangerous precedent by giving the executive branch sweeping authority to ignore the laws enacted by Congress and change our nation’s immigration laws to suit a president’s own policy preferences.”
The senator told the group that believes the children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents should not be punished for their status.
“In America, we don’t hold children responsible for the mistakes their parents made,” the senator said.
Speaking about the lawsuit, Cornyn said, “I’m not sure what else this does. It’s not a solution.”
“There’s a saying in Washington, D.C., that some people want a solution while others want an issue they can use for the next election,” Cornyn said. The Dallas Morning News called this an explanation for Paxton’s lawsuit over DACA.
Senator Cornyn’s staff contacted Breitbart Texas and said the Dallas newspaper took the senator’s comment about the Washington, D.C. expression out of context. The spokesman said the senator was speaking about Democrats not wanting to solve the DACA issue and referenced a February Brownsville Herald article where he made the comments to reporters on a conference call. During that call, the senior senator from Texas told the reporters that Republicans “have done their part to find a solution concerning the fate of 690,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. Democrats must vote on legislation or offer their own.”
Senator Cornyn told the chamber members that he believes Trump’s actions on DACA will be upheld in the courts, the senator’s staff member emphasized, and that this makes action by Congress more urgent.
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, GAB, and Facebook.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated after Senator Cornyn’s staff objected to a paragraph stating that the senator criticized Attorney General Paxton. The staff requested clarification that the senator was talking about Democrats and not Paxton.
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