The Supreme Court’s historic decision this past June finding that the Trump administration unlawfully ended the popular and successful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program should have finally brought relief to its beneficiaries. Should have, but that hasn’t been the case.
As impeached president Donald Trump and his cabal of unlawfully installed political appointees have been defying that ruling (all the while shamelessly running an unsuccessful “law and order” campaign), one of the most corrupt Republican politicians not in the Trump administration is still trying to kill the program in a separate court fight that goes back years.
President-elect Joe Biden’s administration has already confirmed that it will take steps to protect young undocumented immigrants immediately after his swearing in as the nation’s 46th president, with his incoming chief of staff Ronald Klain telling NBC’s Meet the Press last month that “[w]e’re going to protect the Dreamers on day one.”
But if any of us thought that would happen without Republicans still trying to throw a wrench in it, we were wrong.
“Attorneys general in Texas and several other states are urging a federal judge in the border city of Brownsville to declare DACA unlawful and clear the way for an ‘orderly wind down’ during the next two years,” The Washington Post reports. That fight’s been going on since mid-2018, led by notoriously odious Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and overseen by equally anti-immigrant Judge Andrew Hanen.
That Texas judge, who in 2015 blocked Obama administration actions expanding DACA and a separate policy that would’ve protected millions of undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, “declined last fall to issue an injunction stopping enforcement of the program, concluding that the challengers waited too long to seek the order, but the lawsuit remains alive,” NBC News reports.
As America’s Voice noted this past summer, Hanen said at the time that ruling against the program would be “perhaps at great risk to many, does not make sense nor serve the best interests of this country.’” That would be ideal if he’d left it at that, but this is Judge Andrew Hanen we’re talking about. “However, Hanen did note that the Texas case is ‘likely to prevail on the merits of their argument that DACA is unlawful,’” America’s Voice continued.
So where does this leave the incoming Biden administration’s pledge if Hanen does indeed rule against it? This is where immigration policy experts say that the executive has wide latitude when it comes to protecting families. “Since Congress first passed a comprehensive immigration law—the Immigration and Nationality Act—in 1952, each of the 11 subsequent presidents, from President Dwight D. Eisenhower through President Barack Obama, have used their broad executive authority to address unanticipated situations affecting foreign nationals at home and abroad,” Center for American Progress’ Phil Wolgin wrote in 2014.
“The Biden administration needs to be clever about this because there's a sadly decent chance that Judge Hanen strikes down DACA the same day the announcement is made,” American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick tweeted last month. “They should be ready to use alternatives, like Parole in Place or Deferred Enforced Departure.”
We’d also possibly be back to the kind of court fights that led to the kind of decisions that kept the DACA program partially in place following the Trump administration’s 2017 rescission, which also means continued uncertainty for young undocumented immigrants and their families. “As we’ve long said on the long-term future of Dreamers, permanent legislation from Congress is needed to protect immigrant youth,” America’s Voice continued. “And it may be needed fast, given not only the threat from the Trump administration, but from Texas and the infamous Judge Hanen as well.”
Can you chip in $3 each to Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and help win back the Senate to protect undocumented immigrant youth?
