A federal judge in Texas, USA, once again declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program illegal and rejected this Wednesday an appeal from the Government of President Joe Biden.
Judge Andrew Hanen today rejected the Democratic Administration’s attempt to register the plan in federal law in hopes of protecting it from lawsuits against it and thus benefiting more than half a million beneficiaries of immigration protection.
The decision, which could be appealed again by the Biden Executive, did not mandate that actions be taken against people who currently benefit from DACA, such as deporting them or invalidating their work permits.
Hanen, who in 2021 declared the initial memorandum that created the DACA program illegal, argued in the document that while he has “sympathy” for Dreamers, as DACA recipients are known, he has ” problem with the program’s legality.”
“The solution” for these people “lies in the legislative branch and not in the executive or the judicial branch,” the magistrate emphasized in the brief.
“The initial memorandum was declared illegal” and according to the ruling, Biden’s government simply tried to “formalize” a program that the magistrate had already declared irregular.
“There is no material difference” between the document that created the DACA program in 2012, under the government of former Democratic President Barack Obama (2009-2017), and the one presented by the current administration last year, emphasized Hanen.
This legal battle, based on a lawsuit filed by eight states with Republican governments, has dragged on for years and is likely to reach the Supreme Court.
DACA allows more than half a million migrants who came to the United States as minors to remain in the country without fear of deportation and work legally.
Activist groups are asking Congress to act to provide a permanent solution to the “dreamers,” making sure it’s only a matter of time before the courts decide to completely end the program.
DACA was launched by the Obama Administration as a temporary measure, but his successor in the White House, Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021), decided in the first year of his term to end it, causing a domino effect. in the courts that led to the current situation.
