Supreme Court upholds DACA

This week, the US Supreme Court upheld the Obama-era immigration program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In a 5-4 decision, the ruling allows over 800,000 Dreamers to stay in the US and avoid deportation. In delivering this stunning defeat to Trump or anti-immigration agenda, the swing vote from Chief Justice John Roberts, who also wrote the majority decision, rebukes the government for failing to justify ending the program. It finds that the Department of Homeland Security violated the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act and that the decision by the administration to rescind DACA was arbitrary and capricious.

However, this decision doesn’t fully put finality on this program. In his opinion, Roberts said it isn’t unconstitutional for Trump to terminate the program, but his administration could reconsider other legal strategies to justify its discontinuance.

So, in effect, this legal victory for DACA proponents and Dreamers is just temporary and may still be fought with more permanent legislative recourse. In theory, there’s no way to stop Trump from ending DACA under another line of reasoning. But for all practical intents and purposes, doing it at this time, may be close to handing over the presidential election to his Democratic opponent. Trump, as politically astute as he is, should welcome this decision as an opportunity to find common ground with Congress to address the plight of Dreamers once and for all.

I’m sure many Filipino Dreamers stand to benefit from the decision. But with watchful vigilance, we should continue to advocate through our congressional representatives for more permanent programs bestowing legalized status for Dreamers.

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As many of you know, I’m a proud and die-hard Cebuano. Even having lived here in the US for almost two decades now, I still feel the need to do whatever I can to help our beloved city. My heart bleeds with concerned Cebuanos when we see the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the bed shortage in our hospitals, the stories of struggles and fears of our medical frontliners, and the continuing economic hardship for everyone.

With the way this pandemic is unfolding at this time, I think it’s time for Cebu City to appoint a COVID-19 czar whose sole and primary responsibility is to pursue unified, coherent, and smart strategies to fully bring down the number of cases and deaths to a manageable level. He should be empowered to make hard and bold decisions without bias and political color. Personally, rather than appointing a policy wonk, or a bureaucrat or a politician, I prefer someone with the traits of a military leader, the understanding of the dynamics of the disease of a public health administrator, the skills in managing limited resources of a businessman, and the appeal of a community organizer.  You may also want to add someone who doesn’t harbor future political ambitions or not beholden to any politician. These qualities are very crucial in assisting our mayor in handling this crisis.

With a czar who reports and coordinates with him, Mayor Labella can focus more on his other duties as the chief executive while still keeping the leadership role in this crisis.