Story highlights Jeffrey Toobin: Trump's dodge is a decision -- he has authority but doesn't want the heat

By punting to Congress on DACA, he's making a statement on America's values, Toobin says

Jeffrey Toobin is CNN's senior legal analyst and author of "The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court." Follow him on Twitter @JeffreyToobin. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) The debate over DACA comes down to a simple question: What kind of country are we?

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which is a bureaucratic description of a vast American dilemma -- that is, the fate of children who accompanied their parents when they illegally entered the United States.

Under existing law, before DACA, these children were just as subject to deportation as their parents, even though they were blameless in the decision to cross the border and most have known no other home besides the United States. What should be done with these children, who have become known, in an apt turn of political messaging, as Dreamers?

JUST WATCHED Dreamer: Trump didn't even show his face Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dreamer: Trump didn't even show his face 01:13

Frustrated by the failure of Congress to address the fate of the Dreamers, the Obama administration in 2012 took unilateral action to protect them, for a while anyway. President Barack Obama created the program so the Dreamers could receive two-year renewable permits allowing them to live and work freely if they passed a background check. About 800,000 people signed up for DACA permits, and it is their fate at issue in the DACA debate.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration, through a statement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ended DACA, with an effective date of six months from now, purportedly to give Congress time to address the problem.

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