President Donald Trump is considering a controversial strategy to enact sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy through an executive order that might lack legal authority, administration officials told Axios on Sunday.
Trump last week said he was about to unveil a "very major" immigration policy via executive order, which he says the Supreme Court gave him the power to do.
The White House’s strategy is apparently influenced by John Yoo, the lawyer who wrote the Bush administration's justification for waterboarding after 9/11 and who penned a recent National Review article arguing that the Supreme Court's 5-4 DACA ruling last month, in addition to actions taken by President Barack Obama, pave the way for Trump to implement policies that Congress won't.
Two administration officials told Axios that Trump discussed the article with key advisers, while Yoo said he met virtually with White House officials about the ruling's implications.
The immigration policy Trump is touting could include significant new restrictions on immigration that Congress wouldn’t pass but are favored by the president, Jared Kushner and adviser Stephen Miller.
Yoo told Axios the court's opinion "sets out a roadmap about how a president can use his prosecutorial discretion to under-enforce the law."
He added that even if Trump knew "his scheme lacked legal authority, he could get away with it for the length of his presidency. And, moreover, even if courts declared the permit illegal, his successor would have to keep enforcing the program for another year or two."
Axios’ Sam Baker said Yoo’s thinking is a somewhat strained reading of both procedural history and the law, but acknowledged that the Supreme Court wouldn’t be able to decide the merits of anything Trump does before the election.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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