CNN host Jake Tapper called the DACA program's constitutionality "questionable" during an interview on NBC's "Late Night" Tuesday.
DACA, short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was the 2012 Barack Obama executive action that shielded young illegal immigrants, first brought to the country with their families, from deportation. The Trump administration rescinded the order on Tuesday, and President Donald Trump has asked Congress to pass replacement legislation before it gets phased out in six months.
Tapper commented on the program's questionable constitutionality while he suggested Trump might not recognize the enormity of canceling a program like DACA.
"I'm not quite sure that he fully comprehends that the 800,000 people that have temporary protections from President Obama's questionable—in terms of its constitutionality—provision, whether he knows that, A, once the program's over, they will be subject to deportation, but also B, and this isn't something that's getting a lot of attention, to become a DACA applicant, you have to actually apply...So not only are these people vulnerable, now the government knows where they live," Tapper said.
Meyers, who makes no secret of his liberal leanings, acknowledged "there was some questionable constitutionality as to what Barack Obama did."
In announcing the program's cancellation Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the Obama initiative an "unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch."
Trump tweeted Tuesday that if Congress was to not pass a replacement, he would "revisit" the issue.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/905228667336499200