ORLANDO – Even while he was busy putting into play the process for destroying the DACA program, President Donald Trump was saying he has a “great love” for the young people it protects from deportation.
Speaking before a meeting with administration officials and congressional leaders Tuesday, Trump said he hopes “Congress will be able to help them and do it properly.”
Pardon me, but DACA was already helping them. DACA has kept nearly 800,000 young immigrants from being deported. Typically Trump has said absolutely nothing about why he thinks DACA wasn’t doing it “properly.” That’s because he’s out of his league. He’s like a fish out of water gulping deadly air.
Trump never thought for a moment when he began his run for office that he would win. Now that he has, his personal inadequacies invade every day of his presidency. Because he does not know what to do, he focuses on what Obama did, and then issues an executive order to undo it.
Just as he tried to do with his TrumpCare plan, he issues the order to undo then leaves it up to Congress to come up with an alternative plan. This for Trump is governing. The problem is that soon, after all the undoing is done and there are no more pages in the Obama ledger giving him something to do, he’ll be left dangling in the political wind where his incompetence for office will be made all the more clear. It’s easy to throw a rock through a window. More difficult to manufacture and install one.
Taking office after Obama was for Trump something akin to performing after the King of Pop. It was a very tough act to follow. While most of the nation silently compares him to Obama, Trump seems obsessed with the comparison. And– okay, I’ll say it– it probably stings all the more to the white supremacist sympathizer that Obama is black.
What Trump is doing will not, as he hopes, diminish the accomplishments of the man he can never hope to outclass. Being Obama just seems to piss Trump off. And now, Obama has outclassed him once again with this response to Trump’s decision on DACA.
“Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question,” Obama said in a Facebook posting.
He added, “It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit, and to common sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists, and Americans of all political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future.”
Trump just simply doesn’t measure up. And 3 and half more years– if he makes it that far– won’t likely change that fact.
Obama’s full statement:
Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules.
But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.
Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill.
That bill never came. And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.
But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?
Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are that pitcher on our kid’s softball team, that first responder who helps out his community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.
It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit, and to common sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists, and Americans of all political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future. I’m heartened by those who’ve suggested that they should. And I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency these young people feel.
Ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about who we are as a people – and who we want to be.
What makes us American is not a question of what we look like, or where our names come from, or the way we pray. What makes us American is our fidelity to a set of ideals – that all of us are created equal; that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will; that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure our most cherished values for the next generation. That’s how America has traveled this far. That’s how, if we keep at it, we will ultimately reach that more perfect union”
