Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, September 4, 2017

DACA

There is at least some hints that Congress might actually, you know, do some of that legislating.

Not in September.  September is going to be a triage unit of disaster avoidance.  The debt ceiling has to be raised and some sort of new spending - even a continuing resolution - has to be passed. There is Harvey (and maybe Irma) relief to pass.  And maybe we should find a way not to go to war with North Korea.

Hair Furor has announced that he will end DACA in six months.  DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Something That Starts With A.  Basically, if you were brought to this country when you were a minor, you can stay as long as you go to school, have a job and don't do crimes.  It is a perfectly sane policy implemented by Obama, because the GOP Congress wouldn't act on it.

Now, however, the GOP owns all policy outputs.  Trump's decision to end DACA is heartless and cruel, unless the Congress can pass a bill instituting DACA into law (at this point it was an executive action).  Since DACA has no real legal standing, this is an opportunity for the GOP to blunt some of their negative standing with people under 40.  They can claim credit for making DACA into law.

Of course, the way they are going about it, with Trump threatening to deport a bunch of kids, means that they are unlikely to see any real benefit.  Well played.

Here is a link to my former advisee, Chris Zheng's, Facebook page.   At the link is a fundraiser for United We Dream.  Consider throwing in some coin.

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