Ambitious progressive judges have stalled the immigration reform debate in Congress by giving D.C. politicians an excuse to avoid the painful compromises needed to reconcile the competing demands of voters, business groups, and amnesty advocates, say legislators.
The Supreme Court announced February 26 it would let the far-left Ninth Appeals Courts debate whether President Donald Trump followed legal procedure when he ended the program, which was created by former President Barack Obama without a formal regulatory process, despite laws barring the employment of illegal immigrants.
On the same day, another California court barred the federal government from revoking ‘DACA’ work-permits given to illegals without a formal appeals process.
Both decisions mean Democrats are under less pressure to compromise with the popular political demand for immigration reform which helped elect Donald Trump in 2016.
The Supreme Court will decide the legal issues, but perhaps as late as 2019 — or 16 months after Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally ended the amnesty programs used by 680,000 self-admitted illegals, and 26 months after Trump was elected under a popular promise to reform the nation’s immigration programs.
“The first thing it does is enable the people in Congress just kick the can down the road,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Cente for Immigration Studies. “They are relieved from doing their jobs because the judges are doing their job for them.”
Trump suggested he will wait for the courts to finish their deliberations. “DACA is going back [to the ninth circuit], and we’ll see what happens there,” Trump said February 26.
Politico cited legislators who said the judges’ power-grab means less action in Congress:
“There’s no question that having the injunction stay in effect takes away a little bit of the urgency of some people to act,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Monday …
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) predicted Monday night that “we’ll kick the can down the road,” adding that “it’s going to be past another election cycle” before the courts reach a final decision on DACA …
“Unfortunately I do” think the high court’s decision has lessened the urgency of congressional action, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Monday. “I wish I could give you a better prognosis but as long as the president is playing such an unproductive role, I don’t see an avenue.”
The judges’ intervention, said Krikorian, “does not help America, and it is one more especially egregious example of the flight from democratic politics, and of the [courts’] usurpation of authority.”
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