Appeals court again declares DACA illegal, but keeps immigration policy alive
washington — A federal appeals court on Friday declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy illegal, creating uncertainty for more than 500,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children before President-elect Donald Trump took office.
A panel of judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the Biden administration’s codification of DACA violated U.S. immigration law. The 2012 Obama administration memorandum that originally established the policy was also found to be unlawful by a federal court.
For more than 12 years, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the country illegally as minors or who overstayed their visas to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. They are known colloquially as “Dreamers,” a nickname derived from the DREAM Act, a bipartisan effort to legalize them that Congress has considered but failed to pass for more than two decades.
While it affirmed a lower court order invalidating the Biden administration’s regulation, the panel narrowed the ruling’s impact so that it applies only to Texas, the state leading the Republican-led lawsuit over DACA. The panel paused its rulings related to current DACA recipients pending another court ruling from the Fifth Circuit or the Supreme Court allowing renewals to continue.
The panel also ruled that the deportation protections provided by DACA can be legally separated from the work permits recipients receive.
According to statistics, as of the end of September 2024, approximately 538,000 immigrants have registered for DACA U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Servicesthe agency overseeing the initiative. To qualify for the policy, applicants must prove they arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday and before June 2007; graduated from a U.S. high school or served in the military; and do not have any serious criminal record.
Friday’s ruling could pave the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally resolve the years-long legal dispute over DACA. But it’s unclear how the incoming Trump administration will handle the case and whether it will try to end the program. While President Joe Biden’s Justice Department vigorously defended DACA in court, the first-term Trump administration sought to phase out the policy, arguing that it was unlawful. Supreme Court 2020 Prevented termination of DACA For technical reasons.
Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Trump transition team also did not immediately say how the incoming administration would handle DACA.
