Appeals Court Rules DACA, Obama-Era Immigration Program, Is Illegal
A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against an Obama-era program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of undocumented people from deportation. But in its decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, the three-judge panel stopped short of allowing current beneficiaries to be deported and said it was staying its decision to allow the ruling to be appealed.
The opinion, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is the latest legal turn in a long-running fight over the fate of DACA, and it comes just three days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who sought to end the program during his first term.
A lower court in Texas had ruled DACA was unlawful in 2021, and that decision was upheld in part by the Fifth Circuit in its decision on Friday. But the appeals court ruled that an injunction ordered by the lower court for the entire country should instead be limited to Texas, and that current DACA recipients could continue to renew their status nationwide.
“Because Texas is the only plaintiff that has demonstrated or even attempted to demonstrate an actual injury, and because that injury is fully redressable by a geographically limited injunction, we narrow the scope of the injunction to Texas,” the ruling said.
The appeals court stayed its ruling, and, therefore, no current beneficiary of DACA is immediately vulnerable to deportation from the country. They will also be able to continue working in the country legally.
If the incoming Trump administration tries to terminate DACA, which it attempted to do before, the case could still be appealed — as it was during the Mr. Trump’s first term — and would likely return to the Supreme Court.
The justices previously ruled that the Trump administration had failed to follow the proper procedures to end the program, but it did not weigh in on whether DACA itself was legal.
The Biden administration issued a rule to codify DACA, but the court found on Friday that the administration violated U.S. immigration law when it sought to “preserve and fortify” DACA with a formal rule in 2022.