Cruel decree on ‘Dreamers’

The Trump administration’s announcement to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to live without fear of deportation, was not unexpected.

That doesn’t make it any less cruel or shortsighted.

Nearly 800,000 “Dreamers” have benefited from the DACA program, which was enacted by the Obama administration in 2012.

By all metrics, they are the kind of hardworking, law-abiding young people any country would love to have.

The largest study to date of DACA recipients, released this month by the Center for American Progress, found that 97 percent of DACA recipients were either working or in school. Of those who were working, 69 percent reported moving to a job with better pay.

Other studies have shown the program has created positive economic impacts for both the dreamers and the communities in which they live. Fewer than 0.2 percent of recipients have had their status rescinded due to crime.

For all of these reasons, the DACA program is widely popular: It has the approval of 64 percent of Americans, according to an NBC/Survey Monkey survey released last week.

There’s not a single compelling reason to end the DACA program.

That’s probably why the Trump administration is trying to avoid blame for doing so.

The announcement came with a six-month delay, presumably so Congress can sort out the matter.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who made Tuesday’s announcement, claimed the Trump administration was merely “properly enforcing our laws as Congress passed them.”

Sessions also blamed the Obama administration for implementing “unilateral executive amnesty.”

A handful of state attorneys general from mostly conservative states wrote a letter to Trump earlier this summer, asking him to rescind DACA or face a lawsuit.

The Department of Justice had a choice: It could have defended the program in court, and it might have won. For better or worse, U.S. presidents enjoy wideranging enforcement discretion, both systematically and on a case-by-case basis.

This administration chose not to defend DACA. Now it’s up to Congress to pass legislation it should have passed years ago.