Why I think he is lying

If I say "the Trump Administration is lying about its support for the Dreamers," like-minded liberal friends nod and agree.

My conservative friends, however, shake their heads and tell me the media and Democrats have duped me again.

I want to build an argument here, as an exercise, showing my conservative friends why I think the Trump Administration is lying and how that belief is rooted in something more substantial than my NPR-saturated media landscape.

Here goes:

Today I read Jeff Sessions describe the Justice Department's efforts to end the DACA program. In response to an injunction from a lower court, he said the Department is "now taking the rare step of requesting direct review [...] by the Supreme Court so that this issue may be resolved quickly and fairly for all the parties involved.”

DACA is an important issue to me.

I work with Dreamers.
I teach Dreamers.
These are my friends we're talking about.

So, I want to believe the President and his supporters when they say the larger goal is to protect the Dreamers.

I want to believe they expect Congress to pass legislation that moves DACA out of the murky realm of executive orders and into federal law.

I want to believe - like Mulder-style "I want to believe."

But if that were the case, why is the Justice Department fighting so hard to end the program?

According to Sessions, the Justice Department is "now taking the rare step" of asking the Supreme Court to step in.
"The rare step," eh?

Why work outside of normal legal procedures to end the protections if the plan is for Congress to protect these people before March?

It's either...
A) The Administration expects DACA to become law, but then that "rare step" seems like a waste of time - a massive waste of effort and time.

Or it's...
B) The Administration does not want to protect the Dreamers. Then the "rare step" makes sense.

It is actions versus words, and the actions tell me the latter is the truth.

That is why I think the Administration is lying about their position on a major policy issue.

I think the Administration knows Dreamers have broad support across the country and across political parties, but the Administration also wants to deport Dreamers to countries they've never considered home. So, they are saying one thing and doing another.

There will likely be an effort to convince us that it was in the hands of Congress and they failed, but based on what I have seen this Administration do, the plan is to end DACA and never introduce protections for the Dreamers.

All that will be done behind the thin curtain of a bald-faced lie.