CNN - The Supreme Court and Congress must defend Dreamers

Op-Ed

By Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Sen. Dick Durbin

For the last two and a half years, President Donald Trump has led a campaign of unprecedented cruelty towards immigrants, especially children.

A major front in the President's war on immigrants is his attack on Dreamers, young immigrants who came to the United States as children and are American in every way except their immigration status. President Trump is fighting to end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, and whether or not his anti-Dreamer agenda succeeds will depend on the Supreme Court and Congress.

In 2012, in response to bipartisan calls from Congress, former President Barack Obama used his legal authority to establish Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. DACA provides two-year, renewable protection from deportation to Dreamers on an individualized basis if they register with the government, pay a fee, and pass criminal background checks, among other requirements.

More than 800,000 Dreamers came forward and received DACA. DACA unleashed the full potential of Dreamers, who are contributing to our country as soldiers, engineers, medical students, teachers, small business owners, and in myriad other ways.

DACA is also a lawful exercise of the President's authority to establish deportation priorities.

Past administrations -- Democratic and Republican -- have stopped deportations of low-priority cases and courts have long recognized this authority. For example, in its 2012 decision striking down most of Arizona's controversial immigration law, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the federal government has broad authority over whom to deport. Justice Anthony Kennedy, on behalf of the court's majority, noted: "A principal feature of the removal system is the broad discretion exercised by immigration officials."

DACA is also a smart and realistic approach to immigration enforcement. There are millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, so the government has to set priorities about whom to deport, and whom not to deport, based on its enforcement priorities and limited resources. Under the Obama administration's policy, it was a high priority to deport those convicted of serious crimes or who posed a threat to public safety, and limited resources were not to be used to deport Dreamers.

On September 5, 2017, President Trump ended DACA. Hundreds of thousands of Dreamers faced losing their work permits and being deported to countries they barely remember. When he announced the repeal of DACA, President Trump called on Congress to "legalize DACA," but since then, he has rejected numerous bipartisan deals to protect Dreamers.

Instead, the President tried to put his entire hardline, anti-immigration agenda on the backs of Dreamers. In exchange for a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, Trump's administration proposed a plan that would slash legal immigration and family reunification, and dramatically cut protections for women and children fleeing persecution.

Trump then endorsed a bill placing significant limits on legal immigration in exchange for a path to citizenship.

However, the Senate rejected the Trump-backed plan by a bipartisan supermajority.

Federal courts stepped in to block the end of DACA, but the President appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which will hear the case on Tuesday. In October, we led 49 senators and former senators and 123 US representatives and former representatives in filing a bipartisan amicus brief in the Supreme Court in support of DACA.

As we explain in our brief, a new administration has the right to change deportation rules, but the law requires the government to provide adequate reasons for any change. However, the Trump administration's decision to end DACA was based on the false claim that DACA is unlawful. Therefore, the repeal does not have a legitimate basis and is unlawful.

This should be a straightforward case for the Supreme Court, based on the court's own precedents. It's up to the justices, especially Chief Justice John Roberts, who has long spoken about the importance of the court's neutrality and calling balls and strikes fairly, to follow the law and reject the President's illegal ending of DACA.

Congress also has a responsibility, as an independent branch of the federal government, to stand up for the Dreamers. The House of Representatives responded to President Trump's cruel decision to repeal DACA by passing the American Dream and Promise Act on a strong bipartisan vote. The American Dream and Promise Act is now pending in the Senate, as is the bipartisan DREAM Act, which Senator Durbin introduced with Senator Lindsey Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hundreds of thousands of Dreamers are now counting on the Senate to solve the DACA crisis that President Trump created. It would be an American tragedy to deport these young people back to countries they barely remember. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can give the acts a chance if he would simply call a vote.

Dreamers have benefited America through their talents, hard work and service. Their future hangs in the balance.

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