Administration

Judge cited Trump tweet in decision to leave DACA in place

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The federal judge who temporarily blocked President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program cited one of Trump’s own tweets in his decision.

Trump said in September that he would roll back the DACA program, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. He gave Congress a six-month deadline to pass replacement legislation.

Judge William Alsup wrote in his decision that a tweet from Trump himself demonstrated that leaving DACA in place would serve the public interest.

“Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!” Trump tweeted in September.

“We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the Chief Executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended,” the ruling read.

{mosads}Legal experts have warned that Trump’s habit of tweeting could undermine legal proceedings in some cases. Judges have invoked Trump’s tweets in rulings before, in cases about the travel ban and his attempt to block transgender troops from enlisting in the military.

Alsup also said in his ruling that Trump’s Dec. 29 tweet, in which he wrote that “there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL,” helped to support the plaintiffs’ claim that Trump ended DACA to use it as a “bargaining chip” for his proposed border wall.

Alsup’s decision ruled that DACA must stay in place until all litigation over Trump’s decision has played out and wrote that the decision to rescind the program was “based on a flawed legal premise.” 

Trump met with lawmakers on Tuesday in a lengthy meeting during which parameters for a bipartisan immigration deal were discussed.

Tags Donald Trump

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