U.S. judge rules DACA program illegal, suspends new applications

NEW YORK, Jul 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge in Texas on Friday blocked new applications for a program to protect immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation, but said the hundreds of thousands are already enrolled persons failing to do so would be affected pending further court rulings.

US District Judge Andrew Hanen has sided with a group of states suing for the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, arguing that it was illegally launched in 2012 by former President Barack Obama.

Hanen noted that the program was in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it was set up, but said that due to the large number of participants in the program now – nearly 650,000 – its decision will be temporarily put on hold for their cases and their extension requests.

“To be clear,” the judge said, the order does not require the government to “take any immigration, deportation or criminal action against a DACA recipient.”

He said the government could continue to receive new applications for the program as ordered by a federal judge in a separate case, but it could not approve them.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cheska Mae Perez, a 23-year-old DACA recipient from the Philippines, said her 22-year-old brother and 20-year-old sister filed for DACA as soon as new applications were approved following a court order in December 2020. Her brother got his approval a few weeks ago, she said, but her sister is still waiting.

“I spoke to her a few minutes after the decision,” said Perez. “She burst into tears.”

New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez wrote on Twitter that the verdict came as no surprise, “just a painful reminder that we no longer have to rely on temporary immigration solutions.”

“Congress must seize the moment and every opportunity to finally open a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants,” he said.

Democratic President Joe Biden, who was vice president when Obama launched the program, said he wanted to create a permanent path to citizenship for DACA recipients known as “Dreamers”.

Members of the Border Network for Human Rights and Borders Dreamers and Youth Alliance (BDYA) hold a banner while protesting in a U.S. federal court to demand that Congress pass a Clean Dream Act on March 5, 2018 in El Paso, Texas adopted. REUTERS / Jose Luis Gonzalez

Biden issued a memorandum on his first day in office instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take whatever steps he deems appropriate” to “maintain and strengthen” the program former President Donald Donald’s Trump, a Republican, tried to quit.

JUDGE AGREE WITH DACA CRITICS

The US Supreme Court blocked an offer from Trump to end DACA last year, saying his administration did so in “arbitrary and capricious” ways.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in March that his department would issue a formal ordinance to strengthen the legal position of the DACA program, but the agency has not yet done so.

Biden’s comprehensive immigration bill, which the Democrats tabled in Congress on February 18, also calls for a three-year path to citizenship for many DACA recipients, but lacks Republican support and has long chances of getting passed.

The Obama administration released a memo to create the DACA program after Congress failed to pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill called the DREAM Act.

The recipients are protected against deportation, receive a work permit, have access to a driving license and in some cases have better access to educational grants.

Hanen agreed in its decision with critics of the program, who argued that the DACA ended the legislative process by granting Dreamers benefits without congressional approval.

The program’s beneficiaries say that in the nearly ten years since its inception, DACA has enabled them to develop a life in the United States that would have been impossible without legal status.

At the same time, recipients say the program’s constant turmoil has created undue stress in court, with an ever-present looming danger that the benefits of DACA could fade at any moment.

Even if the ruling protects DACA owners for the time being, the prospect of future legal proceedings creates more uncertainty for the group.

Reporting by Mica Rosenberg, additional reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis

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