Lankford Statement on SCOTUS DACA Decision

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today released the following statement after the Supreme Court released its ruling today in the case to determine whether the Trump Administration’s decision to rescind the Obama Administration’s executive action on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was appropriate:

“The Supreme Court has now ruled that every future president has to abide by any previous President’s executive actions, whether lawfully put in place or not, unless a court determines they may be changed. This is the definition of arbitrary and a new invented constitutional right for the Executive Branch to be able to write laws if the courts like them. This Court has attempted to avoid a politically difficult issue by driving our legal system into a minefield of future uncertainty. In February of 2018, the Senate was in the process of finding a permanent fix for DACA, when the Supreme Court decided to take the issue away from Congress. Now, the Court has returned to Congress an even bigger mess while creating a long-term problem for any President responding to any previous Executive action. Congress was addressing it and should address DACA in law, but now this decision—and the way it is written—leaves the long-term solutions for DACA recipients even more in limbo.”

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