A Decade Later: How DACA Eroded the Rule of Law in America

Illegal aliens at the southern U.S. border, 2021 Getty

Townhall

July 7, 2022

William Davis

Ten years ago last month, President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a benefits program for illegal aliens who were brought to the U.S. as minors. A decade later, the damage DACA has done to the country and the rule of law is clear.

The DACA program currently shields over 800,000 illegal aliens and rewards them with perks typically reserved for American citizens, including driver’s licenses and social security numbers. The creation of DACA further polarized the immigration debate in the U.S., and started an anti-borders project that threatens to bring the U.S. to its knees.

Right now, America is dealing with a crisis of historic proportions on our border. In the first year of Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. allowed roughly one million illegal aliens to cross our border at a taxpayer expense of $10 billion, according to an analysis from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. During that time period, we’ve seen a record surge in fentanyl crossing the border, which has killed tens of thousands of Americans, as well as a record number of migrant deaths. All of this would have been unthinkable ten years ago, and all of it became possible because of the slippery slope of lawlessness the country has been riding since the creation of DACA.

Just nine months before creating DACA, Obama acknowledged that he didn’t have the power to do so.

“I just have to continue to say this notion that somehow I can just change the laws unilaterally is just not true,” Obama said at the time.

Obama had long advocated for amnesty, but appeared to understand that he didn’t have the authority to do so by executive fiat. That all changed with DACA, and led to the creation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) just two years later. DAPA extended the legal protections and benefits in DACA to certain parents of illegal aliens. DAPA and DACA served as a one-two punch against the rule of law, rewarding millions of illegal aliens with amnesty without an act of Congress.

Around that same time period, the number of cities and counties designating themselves as sanctuaries for illegal aliens exploded. While sanctuary cities existed long before 2014, a map of sanctuary counties shows that the number of sanctuaries spiked in 2014, and continued to increase during the Trump Administration as liberal jurisdictions ferociously pushed back against the administration’s enforcement policies…

Read the rest here.

—>UPDATE: The liberal AJC prints a lengthy correction after demand letter from the Dustin Inman Society. More news on this coming soon.

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Daily Signal News report (‘DEFAMATORY’: Conservative Demands Swing-State Newspaper Retract ‘Hate Group’ Smear’)
on the recent AJC attack here by the great Tyler O’Neil.

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I added educational hyperlinks to the below letter – dak.

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October 18, 2024

VIA U.S. REGULAR MAIL & E-MAIL

Leroy Chapman, Jr., Editor in Chief THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION 223 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE Atlanta, Georgia 30346

Re: Demand for Retraction and Apology

Dear Mr. Chapman, Jr.:

I write on behalf of my client, the Dustin Inman Society (DIS), to demand an immediate retraction and apology for the defamatory statements published in your October 7, 2024, article titled “Democrats in this Georgia district are backing a write-in candidate” by Tia Mitchell.

Through use of internet links, the AJC article wrongfully characterizes the Dustin Inman Society as a “Marietta-based anti-immigration hate group.” This characterization is false, defamatory, and published with actual malice. The Dustin Inman Society pushes for secure borders, is not “anti-immigration” and its proprietors do not hate anyone. Rather, DIS advocates for enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and actively opposes unlawful immigration. This distinction is crucial and well-known to staff at your publication.

I paste the offending paragraph from the AJC story:

“A search of activity under her birth name, Karen Sacandy, which Stamper legally changed in 2019, showed that she previously was aligned with a Marietta-based anti-immigration hate group. The group’s website often linked to Sacandy’s activities, like a letter seeking information about the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board and a copy of a letter to the editor supporting legislation to prevent immigrants claiming asylum from obtaining driver’s licenses.”

HEMMER WESSELS MCMURTRY PLLC
250 Grandview Drive, Suite 500, Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017 ● Phone 859.344.1188 ● Fax 859.578.3869

October 18, 2024 Page 2

We note the AJC informs readers that the Dustin Inman Society “often” linked to Karen Sacandy/Kate Stamper activities — but produces only two occasions.

Your story, for which DIS founder and president D.A. King was not contacted, informs readers that Sacandy/Stamper “was aligned” with the Dustin Inman Society. We note that polls show that a majority of Americans oppose the federal offense of illegal immigration. Since the letter posted on the DIS site was a published missive to the editor at the Cherokee Tribune, we must ask: does this make that newspaper a “Cherokee County-based anti-immigration hate group”?

Your characterization demonstrates a reckless and vindictive disregard for the truth, rising to the level of actual malice as defined in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. Actual malice in defamation law refers to publication of a statement with knowledge that it is false or with reckless disregard of whether it is false or not. Your repeated mischaracterization of the Dustin Inman Society, despite having been corrected on numerous occasions, clearly meets this standard.

The Dustin Inman Society’s position on immigration is clear and public:

1. It supports sustainable levels of legal immigration through established channels.

2. It opposes unlawful immigration due to various societal concerns, including: – Strain on public resources and services
– Potential and real public safety issues
– Economic impacts on low-wage American workers and America’s poor

– Challenges to the rule of law

3. The Dustin Inman Society defends legal immigrants when media attempt to blur the difference between them and illegal aliens.

Moreover, the Dustin Inman Society’s board includes lawful immigrants who have navigated the proper channels for authorized immigration. This fact alone should dispel any notion that the organization is “anti-immigration.” As he has informed you multiple times over much of the last two decades, D.A. King’s sister is a real, legal immigrant.

While we acknowledge that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Dustin Inman Society as an “anti-immigrant hate group that denigrates all immigrants,” your article presents the “anti-immigration hate group” characterization as the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s independent assessment and statement of fact.

This smear is not only demonstrably false and ignores Mr. King’s many communications to you advising you of the truth, but also demonstrates an exceedingly unprofessional failure to fact-check and verify information before publication.

We demand that the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

October 18, 2024 Page 3

1. Immediately publicly retract the defaming statement in the October 7, 2024, article.

2. Publish a prominent apology, equal in visibility and placement to the original defamatory article.

3. Cease and desist from further defamatory characterizations of the Dustin Inman Society.

Failure to comply with these demands may result in further legal action. We expect your prompt attention to this matter and await your timely response.

Sincerely,

Todd V. McMurtry

cc: James Abely, Esq.