Both the president and Congress are
struggling to commit to a stable course of action regarding President
Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Do they scrap it or keep it? Although there are legitimate arguments
favoring either option, DACA should nevertheless be repealed.
Very quickly, what is DACA? It is an executive order signed
by President Obama in June 2012 that allowed all
illegal aliens who arrived in America before they were aged 16 to
apply for legal work permits, Social Security numbers, and driver's licenses
and made them eligible for earned income tax credits. Enrollment must be
renewed every two years. Since 2012, nearly 800,000 illegal aliens have
taken advantage of DACA – most of them adults. Essentially, DACA grants
participants the rights and privileges normally associated with legal entry
into America. It is renewable amnesty.
There are three main problems with DACA. The first is that
it undermines the rule of law in a fundamental way. In signing DACA,
President Obama overstepped his authority and violated the division of powers
as laid out in the Constitution. DACA was and is a usurpation of
legislative power; it is a knife in Congress's back. This republic was
constructed according to a number of axioms, one being that different arms of
government have different parts to play and that each arm checks and balances
the others. Congress is the seat of legislative authority.
Representatives make, amend, and repeal laws and have power over the
purse. The office of the president is the seat of executive authority:
the president enforces the law and serves as our commander-in-chief.
President Obama signed DACA because Congress was unwilling to
legislate on the subject – as was Congress's prerogative. The president
does not have the right to create stopgap legislation like DACA, and the fact
the DACA has remained this long is a testament to Congress's weakness. Ironically,
even Obama was, at least theoretically, aware of this. In 2011, Obama
himself said, "For me to simply through executive order ignore those
congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as
president." America agrees. Trump must scrap DACA to restore
some semblance of balance to government.
The second problem with DACA is that it created an enormous
incentive for people to enter America illegally – as might be expected with any
other form of amnesty. DACA sent a clear message to the millions or poor
who would migrate to America: beat the border patrol, and you will (eventually)
be allowed to stay.
Amnesty is not a solution; it is part of the problem – it
transforms America into a giant lure. The evidence for this is
overwhelming: it is no secret that DACA caused an unprecedented spike in youth
migration into America. Likewise, consider that Reagan's
1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted 2.7 million people
legal status, sparked the beginnings of the greatest tidal wave of illegal
immigration in this nation's history. Now compare this to the approach President
Eisenhower took when he deported nearly 3 million illegal migrants: no more
came for some thirty years. Incentives matter.
Lastly, President Trump is right to scrap DACA on economic
grounds. Why? It boils down to supply and demand. Consider the
apple market: if the supply of apples increases, what happens? The price
of apples goes down. What happens if a stiff frost kills off most the
apples, leading to a shortage? The price of applies rises, since there
are fewer apples to go around. Labor markets work the same way: more
workers means lower wages, while fewer workers means higher wages.
DACA adds some 720,000 legal workers into America's market.
These people compete with American workers, driving down wages and
increasing unemployment rates. This is axiomatic: even the pro-DACA
Cato Institute acknowledges this fact, saying American companies will
begin "recruiting, hiring, and training" Americans to fill the void.
Theory aside, there is ample evidence for this fact. For
example, before Hurricane Harvey, President Trump's crackdown on illegal aliens
had already caused wages
for construction workers to rise by 30 percent (half of Texas's
construction workers were illegal aliens). In light of recent events,
their wages will likely rise even higher – but we can still attribute a
significant portion of said rise to labor market constrictions.
Likewise, towns
in Maine were forced to hire American workers after the availability
of visas for temporary foreign workers declined. What happened?
Unemployment decreased, wages increased, and working conditions improved
in order to attract American workers.
Illegal workers have thoroughly distorted America's labor markets and
hurt the bulk of her citizenry. Illegal immigration is bad
for the economy. This is an empirical fact, not a point of
contention.
For five long years, DACA has enshrined the rights of illegal
aliens and put them above those of American citizens. It is a slap in the
face to Congress, the rule of law, and the common man. President Trump
must scrap DACA – and if he will not, Congress should.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/09/trump_must_keep_his_promise_repeal_daca.html
