Thread by @EricColumbus

THREAD: Some quick thoughts on today’s DACA announcement, as a lawyer who worked for Obama on DACA issues.

2. I don’t support ending DACA. That said, and setting aside decision to end it (a huge set-aside!), let’s assess *how* they’re doing it.

3. Let’s divide it up into the good, the bad, and the ugly. First, the good.

4. They make some effort to minimize disruption. No one loses DACA immediately. Existing 2-yr DACA permits remain valid until expiration.

5. If your permit expires by March 5, you can get two-year renewal if you apply by October 5. Approx 1/4 of DACA folks are in this category.

6. (But 10/5 seems a month too soon. DHS currently tells folks to renew within 120 days of expiration. So that date really should be 11/5.)

7. If your permit expires after March 5, your DACA ends when the permit ends.

8. So DACA will gradually wither away, and the last beneficiaries will lose it in March 2020.

9. I don’t mean to belittle for an instant the massive disruption to Dreamers’ lives. But it’s much better than a sudden cutoff.

10. Now, the bad. Dreamers gave lotta personal info to DHS when they applied for DACA. Post-DACA, will this info be used to hunt them down?

11. This fear existed under Obama too: folks feared that if their DACA application was denied, their info would be used to kick them out.

12. We assured them their info would be “protected from disclosure to ICE and CBP” unless they did bad stuff.
uscis.gov/humanitarian/c…

13. But new DHS language says info “will not be proactively provided to ICE and CBP” unless same criteria are met.
dhs.gov/news/2017/09/0…

14. There's a vast gulf between “proactively provided to” & “protected from disclosure”. So ICE/CBP gets info as long as they ask for it?

15. This change in language is deliberate and very worrisome.

16. To be sure, Trump says he told DHS that DACA folks aren't enforcement priorities unless criminals or in gangs.
whitehouse.gov/the-press-offi…

17. That leaves a gap. Even if ICE isn’t targeting DACA folks, they can incidentally encounter them in other enforcement actions. What then?

18. ICE is the embodiment of the old adage that to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Agents need clear instructions.

19. DHS could easily require ICE agents to get approval from highers-up before going after anyone who had DACA. Will they do this?

20. Also, DHS is making it much more difficult for DACA folks to travel outside the US, for reasons I don’t understand.

21. Now, the ugly. Today’s statements make a legislative fix – either to preserve DACA or to grant a path to citizenship -- much tougher.

22. In his statement, Sessions didn’t just call DACA illegal – he said it was terrible policy.

23. Specifically, Sessions said DACA “denied jobs to 100,000s of Americans by allowing those same illegal aliens to take those jobs.”

24. If you’re a GOP member of Congress, Sessions just made it much harder for you to vote for a legislative deal!

25. This was no doubt his intent – he hated DACA when he was in Congress, not only on legal grounds.

26. Maybe Trump felt he had to let Sessions do that after attacking him over his Russia recusal and getting blowback from the right.

27. If so, Trump could be the first president -- or first boss of any sort -- to grant a subordinate more power by threatening to fire him!

28. So what does Trump want? His muddled statement suggests he wants a DACA fix as part of a comprehensive deal that eluded Obama and Bush.

29. But then WH spox Sanders echoed Sessions by reeling off stats about how many unemployed Americans must compete with DACA folks.

30. As w/Affordable Care Act, maybe Trump just wants a chance to blame Obama & Congress? (Might he dislike DACA because it includes “ACA”?)

31. Trump used to own a football team, but his current squad has no quarterback and too many punters.

32. And, of course, some in Congress are punting right back.

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33. It's still early, but I haven’t seen anything today to change my view that a deal in Congress will be very tough to do.

END OF THREAD