Trump grants amnesty to 125,000 illegals in 3 months

We will immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties in which he defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants, five million. And how about all the millions that are waiting on line, going through the process legally? So unfair. ~ Donald Trump, August 31, 2016

Today, we have unveiled a real scandal in the Trump administration. And no, it has nothing to do with James Comey.

While much of the conservative media is consumed with Comey and Russia, they are missing the irony of defending an administration without even securing some key policy outcomes. The latest betrayal to the Right is the confirmation that Trump’s DHS has issued almost 125,000 “DACA” cards (per Obama’s unlawful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order) to illegal aliens through the second quarter of this fiscal year (January through March).

According to newly published data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Trump administration has issued 17,275 initial amnesty cards and over 107,500 renewals of existing status.

This surpasses the 122,000 level of amnesty cards issued during the final quarter of Obama’s presidency (Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2016), which means the Trump administration is not even slowing down the pace! And although the first 20 days of this quarter were still under Obama’s tenure, the Trump amnesty is likely close to 200,000 by now, when extrapolating in the number of presumed cards issued during April and May...

The jarring thing here is that Trump could fulfill a core campaign promise simply by refusing to renew existing DACA cards...

Obama’s executive amnesty was not merely the suspension of deportations of certain classes of illegal aliens; it offered them benefits and affirmative legal status, with Social Security cards, work permits, and thousands of dollars in refundable tax credit welfare payments. In fact, well over 500,000 illegals had received Social Security cards by 2014 (more likely to be 800,000 by now).

According to a Congressional Research Service memo, illegal families could receive as much as $35,000 in retroactive EITC benefits the first year after being approved for Obama’s executive amnesty.

CAIRCO commentary

The initial reaction of patriotic immigration reformists is that of betrayal - President Trump is not following through on his campaign promise. However, there are good (but perhaps not sufficient) reasons why he may be taking no action at this time:

Childhood arrival illegal aliens are generally the most benign group of illegal aliens living in America. They probably are more assimilated than any other group of illegals.
Young childhood arrival illegal aliens truly had no say in their relocation. They were victimized by their parents who brought them here illegally.
The number of childhood arrival illegal aliens is relatively low.
The issue of childhood arrival illegal aliens is particularly sensitive. Any action President Trump takes will add fuel to the onslaught of attacks the President already faces.
As Mark Krikorian notes below,
"..it might even make sense to try to trade a real, lawful amnesty for the DACAs in exchange for important immigration changes only Congress can pass – specifically, universal E-Verify and cuts in legal immigration. In that case, announcing that renewals would continue until, say, the end of the year could be a powerful motivator for congressional Democrats.

No matter what action - or inaction - is taken by President Trump on childhood arrival illegal aliens, he should unconditionally halt illegal immigration that brings them into America in the first place.

Krikorian also observes that:

"But issuing new work permits to illegals who don't have them already makes no sense at all, either from a P.R. perspective or politically. My speculation is that the White House has no idea what to do about DACA and so is just letting it continue on autopilot – amnestying 192 new illegals a day."

Trump Is Amnestying 192 New Illegals per Day, by Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies, June 8, 2017:

Shortly after inauguration, I wrote about the Trump administration's decision to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty. During the campaign, Trump (correctly) lambasted Obama's unilateral amnesty program as illegal and pledged to stop it on day one. But not only did he not stop it, DHS has continued to process renewals and even new applications, for illegal aliens who did not already have this two-year renewable work permit.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get anyone at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to tell me how many illegal aliens Donald Trump has amnestied since taking office. You won’t be surprised to learn that they picked Comey-Palooza Day to release the data on the second quarter of FY 2017, meaning January through March.

It shows that during the first three months of this year, USCIS has approved 107,524 DACA renewals and 17,275 new applications. Of the 90 days in the January to March period, 70 of them have been on Trump's watch, or about 78 percent. Assuming a constant rate of processing, that would mean Donald Trump has given access to work permits, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, EITC, and more to 13,436 illegal aliens who had not already been amnestied by Obama. That's an average of 192 new illegals a day granted amnesty by Donald Trump.

It would also mean that Trump has renewed Obama's lawless grant of amnesty for 83,630 illegals. But renewals, at least for a time, I can understand – the orgy of sob stories that would result from ending the work permits of some three-quarters of a million people would be a wonder to behold. Though I was initially skeptical, it might even make sense to try to trade a real, lawful amnesty for the DACAs in exchange for important immigration changes only Congress can pass – specifically, universal E-Verify and cuts in legal immigration. In that case, announcing that renewals would continue until, say, the end of the year could be a powerful motivator for congressional Democrats.

But issuing new work permits to illegals who don't have them already makes no sense at all, either from a P.R. perspective or politically. My speculation is that the White House has no idea what to do about DACA and so is just letting it continue on autopilot – amnestying 192 new illegals a day.

How DACA Will End: A Timeline of Expiration, David Bier, CATO, December 16, 2017:

...

How DACA operates

There are essentially three parts of DACA, which are detailed in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memorandum from Secretary Janet Napolitano. The first part is the deprioritization of removal of non-criminal unauthorized immigrants...

The second part of DACA essentially formalizes that decision not remove them. DACA recipients apply for and are issued a Notice of Action I-797 form (below) stating that removal action against them has been “deferred” for two years...

Finally, this receipt of deferred action authorizes the immigrants to request an employment authorization document (EAD) similar to the one below, which is also valid for two years. Under current law, any person in the United States—legally or illegally—can legally seek employment, but it is illegal for an employer to employ a noncitizen who is not authorized to work...

Trump could easily cancel the second part of DACA on day 1, telling U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to cease accepting applications for I-797 deferred action forms. These forms are technically valid for two years, but they clearly state that they were issued as part of DACA. Deleting DACA recipients from ICE databases that list them as “lawfully present” could be more time-consuming, but probably not technically impossible...

How DACA would naturally wind down

Even if it wanted to, the Trump administration would likely be dissuaded from ending DACA immediately by the practicalities of cancelling all 800,000 EADs alone. But it makes especially little sense to do this when a majority of the EADs will expire within a year of Trump assuming office in any case...

More than 85 percent of all DACA EADs are 2-year authorizations. Another 108,000 are 3-year authorizations that were issued in late 2014 and early 2015...

Worst case and best case scenario for DACA recipients under President Trump

The worst case scenario for DACA recipients would be that the Trump administration stops accepting new DACA applications and eliminates any kind of priorities for removal, allowing agents to apprehend any unauthorized immigrant that they meet...

At the other extreme, the Trump administration could continue the current priorities for removal and allow current recipients of DACA to use their EADs until they expire, while not accepting new applications or renewals. This would be the least controversial and most practical decision that would also be consistent with Trump’s campaign promises.

Will Disloyalists In Federal Government Bring Us To Civil War?, Pat Buchanan, Breitbart, June 12, 2017.