DACA Ruled Unlawful by Federal Judge, Who Suspends Applications

“The decision does not reflect any new law developments, not even from the Supreme Court, and therefore offers many reasons for a successful appeal,” said Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund.

“The most important thing is that the current recipients are protected,” he said.

Texas led efforts to end the program and was supported by Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Officials in these states had argued that the program was improperly adopted, leaving them the burden of paying for education, health care and other benefits for immigrants who stayed in the country under the protection of the DACA.

In his 77-page statement, Judge Hanen said Congress had reserved extensive powers to regulate immigration and refused several times to give legal status to a group like the dreamers.

“The executive cannot simply enact its own legislative policy if it does not agree with the decision of Congress to reject legislative proposals,” the judge wrote. “Congress did not give the DHS the authority to pass the DACA.”

There are currently around 650,000 immigrants enrolled in the program. Among them are about 200,000 frontline workers who performed essential health, agriculture, food processing and education roles during the pandemic.

President Donald J. Trump announced a cancellation of the program in 2017, but several federal court rulings prevented him from ending it entirely. Recipients were able to renew their DACA enrollment even though new applications were not accepted.

With the future of the contested program still in the air, Texas and the other states filed a lawsuit in 2018 calling for the program to be terminated “immediately.” Judge Hanen rejected an injunction on the grounds that the “egg had already been stirred up” and that the “attempt to put it back in the shell” was not in the best interests of the country.