Former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano defends DACA in op-ed

PHOENIX — Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona, defended an Obama-era program that granted temporary work permits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children in an op-ed for NBC News.

Napolitano said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, “has benefited not only these high achieving young people, but our nation as a whole.”

“Now the future of DACA is in jeopardy. The Trump administration’s plan to end the program is illegal, unconstitutional, and anathema to our national ethos,” Napolitano said.

“It also defies common sense. I believed in the importance of DACA five years ago, and I will fight for it now,” she added.

President Donald Trump ended the program in September, claiming it was an “unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”

A six-month delay allowed Congress to decide whether it wants to write legislation to protect the so-called DREAMers.

Related: 

• Arizona is home to 4 percent of all DACA recipients
• Arizona’s economy could lose $1.3B from DACA removal
• Nearly 50 Arizona superintendents sign letter in support of DACA

During her tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, Napolitano helped former President Barack Obama implement the program that granted nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the U.S.

Now, as the president of the University of California, Napolitano is suing the Department of Homeland Security for “violating administrative procedures and constitutional due process requirements” by abruptly ending the program.

“Indeed, my faith in DACA has only been strengthened by my experiences leading our nation’s largest public research university system,” Napolitano said.

“Our more than 260,000 students are among the most accomplished in the United States. Their backgrounds reflect those of our country as a whole: All but a small fraction are descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

“Yet the UC students who have arguably placed the most trust in our federal government — undocumented immigrants who have come out of the shadows to supply verified information about their personal lives — now fear being deported to countries they do not know and whose language they may not even speak,” she added.

Napolitano said the university will present its arguments in November and will push Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for the recipients.

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