Fox & Friends says DACA is unconstitutional. They're obviously wrong.

Legal experts have said immigration prosecutorial discretion is legal

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

The hosts of Fox & Friends parroted false claims from some Republican governors and President Donald Trump that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, is unconstitutional while discussing reports that Trump is planning to end it. DACA is an administrative program enacted under former President Barack Obama that provides temporary administrative relief from the threat of deportation for some immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children who meet a set of qualifications, allowing them to legally work. Legal experts have previously explained that the program is legal because the president has broad prosecutorial discretion for immigration enforcement. From the September 5 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): At 11 o'clock today, not the president of the United States, but the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, will have an announcement on the future of the Dreamers. Those kids who came here because their parents brought them here at a very young age, not really their decision, and whether they have a future in the U.S. or they're going to have to leave. The president, through an executive action, President Obama, said you can stay, but now there's an expiration date on that because 10 to 12 Republican governors have sued the administration, saying, I want an answer. I want to end this DREAM Act because it's unconstitutional. So the president has until September 5. At 11 o'clock today, he's going to make his announcement and it's very creative.

ABBY HUNTSMAN (CO-HOST): Yeah, and it sounds like he's going to punt it off to Congress, Steve, to extend it for six months.

KILMEADE: Where it belonged to begin with, right?

HUNTSMAN: Where it did -- and that's what he's saying. He's saying the executive order originally by former President Obama, it was unconstitutional, and that's why we are doing away with DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals].

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): It was not an executive order by President Obama. The DHS [Department of Homeland Security] simply changed the rules. So they did not go to Congress, they did not write it out on paper. They just said -- he called up the DHS secretary and said, “Hey, let's make some changes.” Reportedly, President Obama, who did just that, is going to speak out if the president does something, and obviously they're going to do it today because those various states were going to sue the federal government today and it was unclear whether or not Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, would then have to defend the Dreamer status. And instead, he's going to turn around and say, “You know what? We're not going to defend it because we're going to get rid of it.”