Amidst the hurricanes that have devastated states like Texas and Florida, America's thirty-fourth week under the Trump administration primarily concerned North Korean threats and the controversial decision to end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The program, started by former U.S President Barack Obama in 2012, allows immigrants who came to the U.S as children to work and go to school legally. The week began with legal troubles for the 45th president, with the state of California suing Trump over his DACA decision. Xavier Becerra, California Attorney General and member of the Democrat party, declared his desire to sue the Trump administration over violations of the Fifth amendment. According to Becerra, the termination of the DACA program would allow the government to use personal information from DACA recipients to potentially deport them out of the country.
Given that the fifth amendment's due process clause states that no one should be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law," the state of California is arguing that the deportation of thousands of immigrants is illegal. In addition, Becerra argues that the termination of DACA goes against two federal laws, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Act, by ending the program without proper notice and without requesting public comment on potential changes to it. Becerra then chastised the President, stating that it his decision to end DACA was a "reckless choice" that "violated the Constitution as well as federal laws that help ensure our government treats everyone fairly and transparently."
Although other organizations continue to sue the Trump administration over the DACA decision, including the University of California and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Trump has recently met with democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi concerning the future for DACA. The morning after the meeting, Trump expanded on his desire to mend the gap imposed by his DACA decision, stating that the House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are "very much on board" to make the DACA program exist. While in Florida to view damage from Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic since 2007, President Trump then commented: "We are not looking at citizenship. We are not looking at amnesty. We are looking at allowing people to stay here. We are working with everybody."
Trump's decision to meet with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi may come as surprising to some, given the stark opposition of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. History has shown that disagreements between the left and right run rampant. In 2013 under the Obama administration, the government was forced to shut down for 16 days due to a dispute over the budget for the next fiscal year. However, Trump's recent contact with the Democratic party have been less dramatic. Just earlier this month, President Trump and Chuck Schumer agreed to remove the federal borrowing limit for Congress. If this debt ceiling isn't removed, supporters assert that the U.S government may plunge into bankruptcy. Thus, Trump's decision to support the Democrats' desire to remove the limit may signify a new future towards bipartisanship.
The United States and other nations have joined together to denounce North Korea's recent missile launches. Earlier this month, North Korea launched a missile over Japanese airspace for the second time. While the weapon usage of North Korea has posed a threat, American airspace authorities did not shoot down the missiles after concluding that the weaponry did not serve as a threat to the U.S or Japan. As of recent, Trump's speech at the United Nations meeting expanded on North Korea's nuclear weapon developments. The 45th U.S President scolded the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying that he is a "rocket man on a suicide mission" and that America will be willing to "totally destroy" the East Asian nation.
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-daca-lawsuit_us_59b6c50de4b0349d072b91fc
- https://news.vice.com/story/republicans-are-fuming-over-trumps-daca-deal-with-chuck-and-nancy
- http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/politics/chuck-schumer-nancy-pelosi-donald-trump/index.html
- https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/07/trump-schumer-agree-to-pursue-plan-to-repeal-debt-ceiling-report.html
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-un-north-korean-leader-suicide-mission-n802596