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Libertarian Party denounces the end of DACA

For immediate release
Sept. 5, 2017

Contact: Elizabeth Brierly: Media@LP.org or (408) 930-4172
Libertarian Party denounces the end of DACA

The Trump administration has announced that it will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program commonly known as DACA. DACA protects immigrants who came to the US as children. Since it’s implementation, DACA has saved almost a million young immigrants from deportation and has allowed them to work legally in the US.

Libertarian Party national chair, Nicholas Sarwark, says, “This is a heartless move by the Trump Administration. The recipients of DACA did nothing wrong. In fact, their parents loved them so much as to risk everything to bring them out of areas of extreme violence and poverty. They wanted a safer, better life for their children in America. How can we disparage them for that? This president shows mercy to a criminally convicted sheriff, but would toss young immigrants to the wolves for the acts of their parents? You can measure a bully based on whom they choose to pick on.”

The Libertarian Party does not support classifying undocumented immigrants, of any age, as criminals. The current US immigration system is an embarrassment. People who would like to follow the legal procedures are unable to because these procedures are so complex, expensive, and lengthy.

If Americans want immigrants to enter through legal channels, we need to make those channels fair, reasonable, and accessible.

Libertarians believe that if someone is peaceful, they should be welcome to immigrate to the United States.

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Wang Tang-Fu

25 Comments

  1. robert capozzi robert capozzi September 8, 2017

    tk,

    “Reprieve” seems the better word. It’s still not clear on its face to me that a President has the power to reprieve in the manner that BHO did. Is there precedent for using the reprieving power for a large class of people who have not been indicted or otherwise charged?

  2. dL dL September 8, 2017

    Neither. Reprieve (which is part of the “pardon power” mentioned in the Constitution).

    I thought using that language would require a conviction or an imposed sentence? Filing for an exemption seems to me to be the more accurate way to put it…

  3. Thomas L. Knapp Thomas L. Knapp September 8, 2017

    “Exemption, not pardon.”

    Neither. Reprieve (which is part of the “pardon power” mentioned in the Constitution).

    DACA gave people who would otherwise have been deported the ability to apply for and receive renewable two-year reprieves (delays of execution of the sentence of deportation).

  4. dL dL September 7, 2017

    DACA is not a procedural violation. It is an exercise of pardon power as well as discretion in executive action and enforcement priorities.

    Exemption, not pardon. A pardon is a permanent absolution of a criminal conviction. The conviction is permanently stricken from the record. Once and and for all. It is certainly not something that has an expiration date and thus has to be renewed every X years.

  5. dL dL September 7, 2017

    Sorry, maybe it is only 98%

    it’s not 2%…as I wrote earlier, the open borders position is no more unpopular than the closed borders position.

    https://openborders.info/blog/who-favors-open-borders/

    “Sure, let in the guy who claims to have a suitcase nuclear bomb and has vowed to blow up the National Archives and destroy the original copies of the the Constitution and Declaration?”

    The guy would be a crackpot…suitcase nuclear devices do not exist…at least not officially. To the extent that someone actually tired to carry out such an attack with that type of government weapon(a weapon that governments do not publicly acknowledge), it would be a state op. And it would not be announced.

    I do not acknowledge highly improbable, worst case scenarios as a logical demonstration against a presumption of liberty. Obviously, every liberty could objected to using the same argument. And rest assured, someone will get around to using the same argument against a liberty you care about.

  6. Luke Luke September 6, 2017

    I’m not sure whether pardon has been given to a whole class of people before. I seem to recall Reagan giving a lot of immigrants amnesty but I would have to look up the details of that. It’s certainly not uncommon for law enforcement to set certain policies regarding enforcement or non-enforcement of certain laws or setting priorities for enforcement since their resources are limited.

  7. roberrt capozzi roberrt capozzi September 6, 2017

    LUKE: DACA is not a procedural violation. It is an exercise of pardon power as well as discretion in executive action and enforcement priorities.

    ME: Interesting. I had not realized that “pardons” can be granted to entire classes of people. I’ve not looked at this that closely, but did BHO name every person “pardoned” by DACA? Is there precedent for class pardons of this nature?

    As I understand it, some Ls are prone to declare laws illegitimate beyond those designed to curb force and fraud*, but if that’s the case, then the release would probably need to explain that largely foreign concept for the Uninitiated and Non True Believers.

    ______
    * Nonarchists go further to assert that all monopoly law-making is illegitimate, an even more bracing and unusual contention, requiring far more elaboration.

  8. Tony From Long Island Tony From Long Island September 6, 2017

    dL:

    Libertarians believe in open borders, period…with no standing authority placed at imaginary lines to assess one’s motivations.

    Not according to Andy!

  9. Luke Luke September 6, 2017

    “LP: The Libertarian Party does not support classifying undocumented immigrants, of any age, as criminals.

    PLATFORM: However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.

    rc: Somewhat inconsistent.”

    It’s not inconsistent. Undocumented immigrants should not be classified as immigrants simply because they are undocumented. Crossing the border is a procedural violation, not a crime, and not the basis for criminal prosecution. It would be ridiculous to say that someone who is undocumented can’t also be a criminal just because they are undocumented, if they are doing things which are legitimately criminal. I guess you could misread the statement above that way but that would be crazy. It would be equally ridiculous to say that everyone who is undocumented has legitimately initiated force or fraud against someone. Perhaps it should be worded better but from here it’s pretty clear that the intent of the statement is that being undocumented *should not be the basis for* classifying people as criminals.

  10. Luke Luke September 6, 2017

    DACA is not a procedural violation. It is an exercise of pardon power as well as discretion in executive action and enforcement priorities.

  11. robert capozzi robert capozzi September 6, 2017

    D+

    LP: Since it’s implementation,

    ME: Proof read more closely prior to release.

    LP: The Libertarian Party does not support classifying undocumented immigrants, of any age, as criminals.

    PLATFORM: However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.

    ME: Somewhat inconsistent.

    fwiw, I see DACA as a procedural violation, a case where BHO arguably usurped powers delegated to Congress. IIRC, Congress did not pass DACA-like legislation, so BHO just decreed it. I’m not comfortable with that. Do I understand that Sarwark and the LP is?

    But of course children should not be held responsible for their parent’s violation of law, and I agree with the releases statement: ” The current US immigration system is an embarrassment.”

  12. ATBAFT ATBAFT September 6, 2017

    Sorry, maybe it is only 98% when advocating that anyone should be let in without any assessment at all of one’s motivation. Do you really think there’s more than a tiny handful who would say “Sure, let in the guy who claims to have a suitcase nuclear bomb and has vowed to blow up the National Archives and destroy the original copies of the the Constitution and Declaration?” A “lifeboat” situation indeed, but I think it applies to what people would think about letting in avowed mass murderers, rapists, or other vicious criminals without having some mechanism to turn them back from entry to the U.S.

  13. dL dL September 6, 2017

    Certainly so, but how do those who prefer to operate in the real world convince 99+%

    99+% is a bogus statistic. The open borders position is no more unpopular than the closed borders position.

  14. ATBAFT ATBAFT September 6, 2017

    “I operate from a presumption of liberty and not from one that gives a rat’s ass about authoritarians throwing out bogus population sampling claims”

    Certainly so, but how do those who prefer to operate in the real world convince 99+% of one’s fellows to revere such angels and pin dancing?

  15. Anthony Dlugos Anthony Dlugos September 6, 2017

    haha.

    I was always partial to Boba Fett.

  16. dL dL September 6, 2017

    I hope you have a tremendously convincing argument for that because I’m thinking about 99% of Americans think that having no controls on who enters the U.S. is just nuts.

    I operate from a presumption of liberty and not from one that gives a rat’s ass about authoritarians throwing out bogus population sampling claims

  17. dL dL September 6, 2017

    That’s the whole point of Edgelord Libertarianism.

    Anthony, have you done your duty to report anyone you suspect may be here “illegally” to the Department of Homeland Security? Just an Edgelord libertarian asking a Sithlord moderate…

  18. Anthony Dlugos Anthony Dlugos September 6, 2017

    “I hope you have a tremendously convincing argument for that because I’m thinking about 99% of Americans think that having no controls on who enters the U.S. is just nuts.”

    That’s the whole point of Edgelord Libertarianism.

  19. ATBAFT ATBAFT September 6, 2017

    “Libertarians believe in open borders, period…with no standing authority placed at imaginary lines to assess one’s motivations.”

    I hope you have a tremendously convincing argument for that because I’m thinking about 99% of Americans think that having no controls on who enters the U.S. is just nuts.

  20. Rebel Alliance Rebel Alliance September 6, 2017

    Believe it or not, there’s something just as outrageous as people growing up in the US and who’ve held gainful employment here being kicked out of the only country they’ve ever known.

    And that’s people who’ve never lived in the US as adults now being forced to pay a lifetime of US federal income taxes, plus interest and penalties.

    Someone needs to go through US immigration law with a chainsaw. And Trump isn’t it.

    US government shaking down dual national foreigners
    https://www.sovereignman.com/lifestyle-design/us-government-shaking-down-dual-national-foreigners-4480/

  21. Starchild Starchild September 6, 2017

    There was a big pro-DACA demonstration today in San Francisco in which I took part. I estimate crowd size at easily over 1,000 people, probably a couple thousand or more, mostly young and very ethnically diverse.

    http://abc7news.com/family/sf-protesters-officials-stand-up-for-daca-after-trumps-decision-to-end-it/2380176/

    Donald Trump: “I have a love for these people…” So that’s why he’s unilaterally decided to suddenly expose them to being deported and deny them equal rights? What a brazen liar (once again). Nick Sarwark is right, it’s a heartless move. But not a surprising one for the nationalist and racist bigot living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

  22. dL dL September 5, 2017

    Libertarians believe that if someone is peaceful, they should be welcome to immigrate to the United States.

    Libertarians believe in open borders, period…with no standing authority placed at imaginary lines to assess one’s motivations.

  23. dL dL September 5, 2017

    Ending DACA is even worse for the dreamers in that those who have applied for the program have already certified to the government that they are here illegally. Normally there is some sort of due process required, however limited and flawed it often is, to prove that someone is here illegally. Such will not be required in the case of the dreamers.

    yep…

  24. wolfefan wolfefan September 5, 2017

    Ending DACA is even worse for the dreamers in that those who have applied for the program have already certified to the government that they are here illegally. Normally there is some sort of due process required, however limited and flawed it often is, to prove that someone is here illegally. Such will not be required in the case of the dreamers.

  25. Anthony Dlugos Anthony Dlugos September 5, 2017

    Awesome. +1000.

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