This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
After President Trump’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) through the Supreme Court failed, at least in the short term, he gave an interview on July 10, 2020, to Telemundo in which he referred to an “executive order” and a “bill” interchangeably that would make unspecified reforms. Congress has not passed a bill related to DACA, but he said he planned to sign “an immigration bill that a lot of people don’t know about.” He said he would “be signing a major immigration bill as an executive order, which the Supreme Court now, because of the DACA decision, has given me the power to do that.”
Legal commenters noted that immigration law cannot be changed through executive order. Several immigration-related bills are drafted, including a 600-page merit-based proposal supported by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, and a bill passed by House Democrats, but any chances of passage of immigration reform appear dim before the presidential election in November.
