Document text
Chris Honoré: POTUS and a moral crossroads By Chris Honoré Jan 23, 2017 12:00 AM A A Donald Trump announced some weeks ago that since he was to be sworn in as the President of the United States on a Friday, and it was customary to attend a bevy of celebratory events throughout the weekend, “day one” would begin the following Monday. I assume that he will then walk into the Oval Office, with pen in hand, and begin the process of revoking, as repeatedly promised, President Obama’s executive orders. But let’s start with what may be his first revocation. That would be the order signed by Obama, in June of 2014, called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act, more commonly known as DACA. Its intent was to allow those children brought here by their parents as minors to receive an exemption from deportation and the ability to acquire a work permit. To be eligible, the young immigrant must have entered the U.S. prior to his or her 16th birthday and before June 2007. The program does not provide lawful status or a pathway to citizenship. At its inception, the Pew Research Center estimated that there were 1.7 million eligible for DACA status. Wikipedia has reported, as of June, 2016, that the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) had received 844,931 applications. What is significant is that to submit the required paperwork, the applicant must, in effect, come out of the shadows and self-identify. It has been an act of good faith and courage that simultaneously involved an implicit if not haunting risk. America is the only country they’ve ever really known. It’s home. It’s where they’ve gone to school. Our culture is their culture. English is their language. In other words, they are part of the fabric of our nation. And yet they are vulnerable, and it is that vulnerability that President Obama was responding to with his heartfelt order. Republicans vociferously denounced the program as an abuse of executive power and voted to defund DACA. As it turned out, however, to the chagrin of the GOP, DACA was self-funding through application fees. In his confirmation hearing for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, a leading voice in the Senate on deportation, when asked about the DACA order being revoked, said, “It would certainly be constitutional, I believe, to end the order,” and that he “would have no objection to a decision to abandon the order.” Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that DACA was an executive order that he would, with a stroke of his new POTUS pen, “immediately terminate,” thereby exposing the applicants to instant deportation. To do so would be unconscionable. But then, it would also be reprehensible if indeed Trump set in motion efforts, as promised, to deport 11.3 million undocumented residents (including their children, citizens or not), a process that some estimate would take two decades, involve an extensive law enforcement presence and support personnel, and cost nearly $600 billion. It would also be morally repugnant and likely unconstitutional if Trump, fulfilling another promise made during the presidential campaign, moved to create a national Muslim registry. He has already suggested that all Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S. until “we know what the hell is going on.” We have walked this path before during World War II when FDR ordered the rounding up and the internment in camps of all Japanese residents, citizens or not. That decision will always be viewed as disgraceful, as would any kind of list based on religion or country of origin. It is chilling that the man who suggested a registry from countless podiums, to the unequivocal cheers of his supporters, is now in a position to order such a list be put together. Should he do any of the above, it will be more than interesting to see what the collective response of Americans will be. There are moral imperatives involved. These are policies that beg for humane and permanent solutions. Why the men and women in the House of Representatives have failed thus far to act, and thereby bring all of those undocumented in our nation onto a path to citizenship, is deplorable. We’ll see what “day one” brings. — Chris Honoré of Ashland is a Daily Tidings columnist.