Roll back DACA, restore rule of law

I’m with the president. The United States of America is a country that lives and dies by the rule of law. Our freedom depends on it. Without it, our liberties hang in the balance.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is an Obama-era program that flies in the face of the rule of law. It’s unconstitutional, and it’s a violation of federal law. President Obama even said so himself in a 2011 town hall, acknowledging that it would be inappropriate for him to use executive orders to ignore congressional mandates on immigration.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions hit the nail on the head when he said, “We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law. But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws.”

We are a country of immigrants. Immigration is what made this country great in the first place. It set America apart as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but it was never illegal immigration that coined us as such.

Illegal immigration not only manipulates the system and wastes taxpayer dollars, it is also a national security threat. Obama’s soft approach to immigration and border security cost the American people. If Obama gave illegal immigration the attention it needed, Americans like Kate Steinle would still be with their loved ones today.

By rescinding DACA, our country continues to move in the direction of a safer and more secure America. We must become a country that rewards legal immigration and reprimands illegal immigration, and DACA does the exact opposite.

I applaud the president’s work in upholding the rule of law and his decision to cease the Obama administration’s unconstitutional amnesty program. The Constitution grants immigration and naturalization powers to Congress, not the president. It’s essential that we enforce the laws on the books and work through the proper channels if we wish to change immigration policy.

I call upon my colleagues in Congress to work with President Trump to restore the rule of law in the United States by rolling back DACA.