CHICAGO - When Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan first took her oath of office in 2003, she said these words:
I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of attorney general, according to the best of my ability.
Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan's daughter said those words again in 2007, 2011, and most recently in January 2015.
Wednesday, she joined 15 other attorneys general suing President Donald Trump and his Administration for rescinding former President Barack Obama's executive order setting up the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in six months.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the president rescinded the program in order for Congress to revisit the nation's immigration laws and reflect the people's will concerning those who came with their parents into America illegally.
Sessions said in his remarks Tuesday,
The DACA program was implemented in 2012 and essentially provided a legal status for recipients for a renewable two-year term, work authorization and other benefits, including participation in the social security program, to 800,000 mostly-adult illegal aliens.
This policy was implemented unilaterally to great controversy and legal concern after Congress rejected legislative proposals to extend similar benefits on numerous occasions to this same group of illegal aliens.
In other words, the executive branch, through DACA, deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize on multiple occasions. Such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch.
That, President Trump decided, needed to be corrected - and a constitutional solution found.
In July 2017, AG Madigan's office urged Trump to continue the program - despite being determined it is unconstitutional - saying, "Since 2012, over 42,000 Illinoisans have been approved to participate in the DACA program. Many of those individuals have already successfully renewed their DACA status for an additional two-year period."
Her office refuted arguments set forth by those opposing DACA and threatening litigation, saying they are “wrong as a matter of law and policy,” and urged the President not to “capitulate” to their demands:
DACA is consistent with a long pattern of presidential exercises of prosecutorial discretion. DACA sensibly guides immigration officials’ exercise of their enforcement discretion and reserves limited resources to address individuals who threaten our communities, not those who contribute greatly to them. Challenges have been brought against the original DACA program, including in the Fifth Circuit, but none have succeeded.
The rest of the AG's office's statements HERE.
