President Donald Trump argued Tuesday that his predecessor’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program “is unlawful and unconstitutional and cannot be successfully defended in court.”
But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has vowed to lead the so-called “Resistance” to Trump, argued the opposite, claiming that the president’s decision to rescind DACA Tuesday was unconstitutional — though he did not explain why.
“We believe the Trump administration has violated the Constitution, federal law, and certainly we believe wholeheartedly the Trump administration has ignored the American people,” Becerra said, according to the Fresno Bee.
He threatened to sue the administration over rescinding DACA, echoing comments by New York’s governor and attorney general — though none of them explained clearly what part of the Constitution Trump had violated.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York State had a “sovereign interest” in “the fair and equal application of the law,” though the distinction between legal and illegal residents is one with a clear basis in law.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — a vociferous critic of Trump who is reportedly working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in investigating him — referenced the Statue of Liberty, rather than the law.
Ironically, Becerra’s opinion of the constitutionality of Trump’s DACA decision was not shared by liberal Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). California’s senior U.S. Senator admitted to left-leaning MSNBC on Tuesday that DACA was “on shaky legal ground.” She referred to a legal threat from ten states’ attorneys general, on the basis of the fact that DACA had usurped Congress’s legislative power. She added: “That’s why we need to pass a law.”
Liberal legal scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University agreed, publishing an op-ed Tuesday in The Hill in which he accused Democrats of being “constitutional short sellers” who had allowed Obama to violate the Constitution’s separation of powers, then cited the Constitution when Trump lawfully rescinded Obama’s policies.
Thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across California Tuesday to protest Trump’s DACA decision.
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