Thread by @matt_cam

Five yrs ago today, Pres. Obama announced his plan to provide DACA-like protections to some undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and residents.

Watching this again today, it feels like it may as well have been 50.

RIP, #DAPA

All of this is only more true than it ever was.

All of it will still be true five years from now.

Unlike any of Trump's executive orders, #DAPA was the product of many months of careful study and coordination across several agencies. There were lengthy internal debates about the best approach to the goal at hand, with a special view to legality. And yet.

FYI, deferred action is a well-established form of legal protection, & there is nothing at all in the controlling law or regulations which would keep it from being extended to as many people as might qualify. It's nothing more than temporary permission to stay with a work permit.

Despite this, one federal judge in the middle of Texas agreed with his state's contention that it wouldn't be able to afford to make more driver's licenses if #DAPA were enacted. (Turns out TX makes licenses at a tremendous loss.) That was pretty much what it came down to.

The Fifth Circuit's affirmance of this decision was before the Supreme Court soon after Scalia's passing, and a divided bench declined to hear it. Trump was elected five months later, and formally ended the program soon after his inauguration.

migrationpolicy.org/article/suprem…

#DAPA was no one's 1st choice--no more so than #DACA--but the best available. It was the most Obama could do under the circumstances for mixed-status families.

Plenty of criticism to be had of his immigration policy, but I sincerely believe he tried here. Worth remembering that.

That said, there is also another view of the evidence: Obama knew that the #DAPA program was doomed to fail, but pushed it forward so that he could show immigrant communities & advocates he had tried to do *something.*

But you know what? Gold star for that too.

The #ImpeachmentHearings are a good reminder that just because doing the right thing may ultimately be futile doesn't mean it's not still the right thing (and worth doing).

History will not remember Obama kindly in many ways, but the #DAPA deserves an honorable mention.

CAVEAT: twenty demerits for The Line

THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE THERE IS NO LINE

TO BE CLEAR: I really don't like the language or underlying presumptions he chose to go with here. But the basic point is there.