(RightWing.org) – In 2012, then-President Barack Obama and his partner in the White House, then-Vice President Joe Biden concocted the idea of an executive order (EO), which he signed and instructed then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano to issue a memorandum establishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Former President Donald Trump tried to revoke the order but was stopped by the Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
A group of states sued, arguing that it was unconstitutional, and a trial judge in the Southern District of Texas agreed, as did a three-judge panel with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (State of Texas, et al, v. United States of America, et al). However, now-President Biden has continued along as if Obama’s signature carries the force of law and has announced his intention to use massive piles of taxpayer money to expand this Progressive Liberal project to include healthcare — even if he has to redefine legal terms to do it.
Dreamers
The beneficiaries of the Obama EO live in the United States illegally — both sides freely acknowledge this point, and to be fair about it, their circumstances are quite different from the millions of other illegal aliens that pour across America’s southern border. These so-called “dreamers” were either brought into this country by their parents while they were children or, in some cases, have been sent across the border to family while the adults remain in their homeland.
Now, along with other benefits given to them that are not available to actual American citizens (like the AmeriCorps VISTA Program and access to American Job Centers), Biden intends to see they have access to tax-funded Obamacare and Medicaid healthcare. To do this, he is recommending that the term “lawful presence” be expanded to include dreamers for the purpose of healthcare benefits. The administration expects this change to happen by the end of April.
Today, my Administration is announcing our plan to expand health coverage for Dreamers, the thousands of young people brought to the U.S. as kids.
We’re not done fighting for their pathway to citizenship, but we're getting them the opportunities they deserve in the meantime. pic.twitter.com/4eqNMMNxtt
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 13, 2023
Not the First End Run Around the Law
In October 2022, the Biden administration tried to legitimize the Obama DACA EO by having the DHS designate it a “final rule” which is the process the executive branch uses to execute the laws passed by the legislative branch, however, this is not a law passed by Congress. As the plaintiffs point out in an amended complaint filed with the court on January 3, the defendants simply took the original EO and renamed it, arguing that “the Final Rule suffers the same flaws as the DACA Memorandum found unlawful by this Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.”
The original trial judge, Andrew S. Hanen, appointed to the bench by George W. Bush, is now being inundated with motions for summary judgment by both sides, along with numerous amicus curiae briefs by outside groups wanting to put in their 2¢ worth as well as other minutiae. What might be the only clear winner in this case so far is the mid-sized deciduous forest that would’ve been cut down if legal filings were still done on paper instead of electronically.
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