Jeb Bush has now definitively said he would end the immigration programs initiated by President Obama—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA). DACA provides deportation relief to young undocumented immigrants brought here as minors, and DAPA provides relief to parents of U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Alex Leary reports:
Bush also said he would undo President Obama's executive action on immigration.
"The DACA and DAPA? Yes I would," he said. "It’s possible that by the time the next president arrives the courts will have overturned those because this concept of prosecutorial discretion, which is what he’s used as the basis for these executive orders, is to look at cases on a case-by-case basis and he’s had millions of people basically by the stroke of a pen be given temporary status. I think the better answer is to fix the immigration problem, to solve it the regular order way, which is to go to Congress, have a proposal, work on a bipartisan fashion to fix a broken immigration system."
Oh my gosh—Congress! That helpful body just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Why didn't Obama think of that?! Oh wait—he did. He and Senate Democrats and even some Republicans spent a bunch of wasted hours working in "a bipartisan fashion" to assemble and pass immigration reform through the Senate only to have it die at the doorstep of the House. Our good friend John Boehner never even gave it a vote. That's all he had to do because it had enough bipartisan support to pass. But he was just too afraid of the House crazies to face them down. Good thing they returned the favor by supporting him for speaker. Oh wait—they didn't.
But Congress aside, Jeb doesn't seem to like Obama's solution. I guess he wants Homeland Security to just keep tabs on all 11 million undocumented immigrants rather than providing some non-criminal offenders deportation relief so the agency can focus on immigrants who might actually be involved in illegal activity. Bush seems to have really thought this through.
Meanwhile, Hillary has stated her support for both programs (though she's stopped short of committing to continuing them as president thus far). Here's her latest tweet on the programs as they face a Republican-led legal effort to block their implementation.
As court hears immigration case today, at stake are stronger families, communities, & economy. Parents & Dreamers shouldn't live in fear. -H
— @HillaryClinton
Oh and let's not forget this nugget from Jeb on Obama's successes.
Asked what Obama has done right, Bush cited his continuation of the NSA data collection program.
Nothing like a little dash of "big brother" from the little brother.