This is a government program that won’t die. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has dodged multiple legal bullets, leaving the program intact.
With Donald J. Trump about to be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, an appeals court ruled that this Obama-era program was illegal. Still, there’s a catch: While no more illegals can be enrolled in DACA, those already protected by the program's provisions remain as such. So, the program is theoretically dead regarding new members, but not for legacy persons (via CBS News):
A federal appeals court on Friday declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy unlawful, casting a cloud of uncertainty over more than half a million unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
A panel of judges before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that found that a Biden administration rule to codify DACA violated U.S. immigration law. The 2012 Obama administration memo that originally created the policy has also been found to be unlawful by federal courts.
Friday's ruling, however, will not immediately change the status quo. By suspending its order, the panel of judges kept DACA alive for current recipients and closed to new applicants, as the program has been operating for the past few years.
For more than 12 years, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as minors to live and work in the U.S., without fear of deportation. They are colloquially known as "Dreamers," a moniker stemming from the Dream Act, a bipartisan effort to legalize them that Congress has considered, but failed to pass, for over two decades.
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As of the end of September 2024, there were roughly 538,000 immigrants enrolled in DACA, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees the initiative. To qualify for the policy, applicants had to establish they arrived in the U.S. by their 16th birthday and before June 2007; graduated from an American high school or enrolled in the military; and lacked any serious criminal records.
Again, it’s mind-boggling how a program that created law through the executive remains intact. This splitting of the baby isn’t going to last. Trump should draft an executive order to trash DACA and prepare his Justice Department to defend such an order in the courts.
Then again, what Obama pulled is tame considering what Joe Biden did to the DOJ and the rule of law.
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