#Ex-DHS secretary purposely weakened legal case for ending DACA: report

President Trump’s former acting Homeland Security secretary purposely decided not to include policy reasons in her memo to end the “Dreamers” program because she didn’t believe Trump administration officials’ grounds to end it, according to a report.

The absence of those reasons became the crux of the Supreme Court’s ruling last month blocking the White House’s efforts to end the Obama-era program.

Elaine Duke said she was “ambushed” by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump adviser Stephen Miller during a White House meeting in August 2017, telling the New York Times that “the room was stacked.”

She said she didn’t list policy reasons because she did not agree with Sessions and Miller that allowing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would lead to more illegal immigration and resulted in an unjustified amnesty.

“What was missing for me is really that process of discussing it,” she said. “It is a grave decision not only from a legal standpoint but from the effect it will have on not just 700,000 people but 700,000 people plus their families.”

The New York Times reported that Duke hoped her omissions would punt the issue to Congress.

“She said she still agreed that DACA ‘isn’t a legal program,’ but hoped that Republicans and Democrats in Congress would eventually find a way to allow the undocumented immigrants covered by the program to live and work permanently in the United States,” the Times wrote.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his majority opinion, said the Trump administration failed to give adequate justification for ending the program that shields nearly 700,000 from deportation.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote. “The wisdom of those decisions is none of our concern. Here we address only whether the Administration complied with the procedural requirements in the law that insist on ‘a reasoned explanation for its action.’”

Asked about Duke’s comments, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump has “kept his promise to the American people to reduce illegal immigration, secure the border, lower the crime rate and maintain law and order.”

“He has never wavered in his highest obligation to the American people: their safety and security,” Deere said.