Yet again, after President Donald Trump has already weighed in and endorsed a deeply unpopular policy position, the president is asking Congress to fix his mess.
Trump has reportedly been searching for “a way out” of his current legislative dilemma involving the Obama-era DACA law, which protects the children of illegal immigrants and allows them to obtain work and study permits. Instead of fulfilling his campaign promise of rolling back the legislation, he announced Tuesday that Congress would have the responsibility of doing something.
Congress, get ready to do your job – DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has urged the president to end the program, is expected to make the formal announcement later on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Some Congressional Republicans have already spoken out and requested that the president not end the program, but there are others who remain staunchly opposed to the measure.
Trump’s new chief of staff John Kelly came up with the solution to kick the issue to Congress after consulting with Republican lawmakers and staff members, and after Trump expressed that he wanted “a way out,” the Times reported. But the delay puts the decision in limbo and can lead to further problems for a Republican party that has struggled to stay united.
“He’s being pulled in a bunch of different directions, and because he doesn’t have any strong ideological anchor, or deep knowledge of the issue, he ends up sort of not knowing what to do,” Mark Krikorian told the Times. “I think the fact that they did nothing to it suggests that they had no idea what to do.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
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