The House has Time to Attack DACA While Ignoring Urgent Need for Immigration Reform

Instead of taking up comprehensive immigration reform, the House is choosing to focus its time on attacking the President’s executive authority to enforce the laws, which includes a specific censure of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yesterday, the House passed the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014, H.R. 3973, which would require the Attorney General to submit a report to Congress of any instance in which a federal officer issues a formal or informal policy to refrain from enforcing a law. The House Judiciary Committee report lists DACA as example of the President’s “failure to enforce the law.”

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed another piece of legislation attacking the President’s authority to prioritize enforcement of the nation’s laws: H.R. 4138, the Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law (ENFORCE the Law) Act of 2014. The ENFORCE Act raises serious constitutionality concerns as it may violate the Constitution’s separation of powers by allowing Congress to sue the President when it believes that the President is failing to enforce the law.

The ENFORCE Act seeks to limit the President’s executive authority to enforce laws, including actions such as prosecutorial discretion for immigration enforcement. The House Judiciary Committee report on the ENFORCE Act also specifically points to the DACA program as an example of the President’s misuse of his power of prosecutorial discretion. Quite the opposite is true. By providing new American immigrants the opportunity to obtain work permits and a reprieve from deportation, DACA has proven to be a prudent and just exercise of the President’s authority to enforce our immigration laws. The majority of Americans and the majority of Members of Congress agree that it would be impractical and immoral to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants who contribute to our communities. Roughly one million of these immigrants are farmworkers who do some of the hardest work in this country to bring food to our tables. In the absence of action from the House to create a workable immigration process, President Obama should expand his use of executive authority to stop deporting hard-working, law-abiding individuals. It makes little sense to spend millions of dollars and inflict great harm on families and communities by deporting individuals who would be eligible for legalization under the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill or similar legislation.

Instead of multiple votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and attack DACA, the House should focus on fixing our broken immigration system. Last summer, by a large bipartisan majority, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, S. 744, that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country and an agricultural stakeholder agreement. In the House, similar bipartisan legislation, H.R. 15, would offer a sensible solution to our broken immigration system. With significant support in Congress and the American public for immigration reform, House leadership should work to fix our broken immigration system. The time is now to move forward with immigration reform legislation.

Instead of taking up comprehensive immigration reform, the House is choosing to focus its time on attacking the President’s executive authority to enforce the laws, which includes a specific censure of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yesterday, the House passed the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014, H.R. 3973, which would require the Attorney General to submit a report to Congress of any instance in which a federal officer issues a formal or informal policy to refrain from enforcing a law. The House Judiciary Committee report lists DACA as example of the President’s “failure to enforce the law.”

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed another piece of legislation attacking the President’s authority to prioritize enforcement of the nation’s laws: H.R. 4138, the Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law (ENFORCE the Law) Act of 2014. The ENFORCE Act raises serious constitutionality concerns as it may violate the Constitution’s separation of powers by allowing Congress to sue the President when it believes that the President is failing to enforce the law.

The ENFORCE Act seeks to limit the President’s executive authority to enforce laws, including actions such as prosecutorial discretion for immigration enforcement. The House Judiciary Committee report on the ENFORCE Act also specifically points to the DACA program as an example of the President’s misuse of his power of prosecutorial discretion. Quite the opposite is true. By providing new American immigrants the opportunity to obtain work permits and a reprieve from deportation, DACA has proven to be a prudent and just exercise of the President’s authority to enforce our immigration laws. The majority of Americans and the majority of Members of Congress agree that it would be impractical and immoral to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants who contribute to our communities. Roughly one million of these immigrants are farmworkers who do some of the hardest work in this country to bring food to our tables. In the absence of action from the House to create a workable immigration process, President Obama should expand his use of executive authority to stop deporting hard-working, law-abiding individuals. It makes little sense to spend millions of dollars and inflict great harm on families and communities by deporting individuals who would be eligible for legalization under the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill or similar legislation.

Instead of multiple votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and attack DACA, the House should focus on fixing our broken immigration system. Last summer, by a large bipartisan majority, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, S. 744, that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country and an agricultural stakeholder agreement. In the House, similar bipartisan legislation, H.R. 15, would offer a sensible solution to our broken immigration system. With significant support in Congress and the American public for immigration reform, House leadership should work to fix our broken immigration system. The time is now to move forward with immigration reform legislation.