Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King told The Daily Caller Friday that “defenders of the Constitution” may need to bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration over amnesty.
President Donald Trump broke his campaign promise to immediately end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in an interview with the Associated Press Friday. He said that DACA recipients, known as DREAMers, should “rest easy” about his immigration policies.
President Barack Obama instituted DACA in 2012, allowing people who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation. Thousands of DACA applications and renewals have been processed since Trump took office.
“We are after the criminals,” Trump told the AP. “That is our policy.”
In an August campaign speech, Trump promised: “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.”
Rep. King, an immigration hawk, let out a long sigh when TheDC informed him of Trump’s comments.
“We all know about his firm 100 percent promise to end the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program,” King said over the phone Friday.
The congressman told TheDC last week that he was “very disappointed” that Trump had yet to end DACA. “Is [Trump] going to force us to go back to court again?” he asked then.
Several Republican states sued the Obama administration and successfully blocked his amnesty for illegal immigrant parents of American citizens. Referring to the need for a lawsuit, King told TheDC, “That’s what it looks like right now, and that’s troubling and disappointing to me.”
When asked to clarify who may bring the lawsuit, the Iowa congressman answered, “any defenders of the Constitution.”
“It is impossible to return the respect of the rule of law in regards with immigration” by keeping DACA, he said.
Conservative author and open borders critic Ann Coulter was also no fan of Trump’s comments that young illegal immigrants should “rest easy.” She told TheDC in an email, “Yes, they can rest in the bus all the way home.”
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