Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy is proposing to end a massive amnesty authority that has shielded thousands of foreign nationals from deportation for over three decades.
Deferred Enforced Departure, a temporary stay of administrative removal of which any president can use at their discretion, has protected thousands of foreign nationals — including illegal migrants — from repatriation since it was created in 1990. Roy, a longtime border hawk, is calling on lawmakers to effectively abolish this program by cutting off taxpayer funding, according to legislation obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
If passed by Congress and signed into law, Roy’s “End DED Act” would prohibit the president or any other federal agency from using federal taxpayer funds to enforce the program, according to text of the legislation.
“Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) is a fabrication of the executive branch that allows the president to shield foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, from deportation based on vague ‘foreign relations power,’” Roy said in a statement to the DCNF. “DED has no statutory basis.”
“It bypassed Congress’ jurisdiction over immigration policymaking, such as determining which immigration programs should be deliberated and passed into law and to what extent they should be utilized,” the Texas lawmaker continued. “It’s long past time for Congress to reassert its role in regulating immigration by ending a program that enables illegal aliens to stay in the U.S. with work permits through the executive.”
Much like Temporary Protected Status (TPS), DED provides temporary deportation protection and work privileges for foreign nationals residing in the U.S., according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Noncitizens granted DED or TPS designations typically hail from countries that are experiencing turmoil, such as an armed conflict or natural disaster.
However, TPS is made at the Department of Homeland Security’s discretion and carries statutory power, whereas DED emanates from the president’s “constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations” and carries no statutory basis, according to USCIS.
Critics of DED say the authority has been repeatedly abused over the years, amounting to amnesty. Former President Joe Biden handed out DED designations during the waning days of his administration, part of his administration’s wide-scale amnesty efforts during the border crisis he oversaw. President Donald Trump himself has utilized DED authority for migrant groups.
For this reason, a number of hawkish immigration groups have fallen in line behind Roy’s legislation.
“As the bill notes, DED was invented during the George H.W. Bush administration with no statutory authority,” Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said to the DCNF. “Like every other dubious claim of discretionary authority, it was abused by the Biden administration to allow members of certain nationality groups to remain in the U.S. indefinitely with work authorization.”
“During his final year in office, President Biden granted DED to Lebanese and Palestinians without the ability to reliably identify individuals who may have ties to terrorist organizations,” Mehlan continued. “As such, FAIR supports the abolition of this unauthorized program.”
In addition to FAIR, the Immigration Accountability Project, Center for Renewing America, National Immigration Center for Enforcement and Heritage Action have endorsed the legislation to defund DED.
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