The conservative Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana has delivered its expected ruling against the popular and successful program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to work legally and live freer from the threat of deportation, and upheld an anti-immigrant judge’s 2021 decision finding the policy illegal.
Texas Judge Andrew Hanen had last year shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to first-time applicants, allowing only current and former beneficiaries to renew their protections. The appeals court out of Louisiana left that in place on Wednesday.
The appeals court judges also sent the case back to Hanen, in order to consider a new Biden administration rule finalized this past summer intended to fortify the program amid GOP-led legal attacks. But Hanen is a well-known anti-immigrant zealot who has ruled against pro-immigrant policy for years now. That’s why corrupt Texas attorney general Ken Paxton went to him.
RELATED STORY: DACA recipients continue pushing for legislation as program goes before conservative appeals court
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“Immigration advocates said the ruling signaled that the only chance for DACA to survive was for Congress to pass a law to protect young immigrants, something it has been unable to do for more than two decades,” The New York Times reported. The U.S. House again passed the Dream and Promise Act last year, a proposal that would permanently protect program recipients. However, nothing has advanced in the U.S. Senate. Democrats from the chamber attempted a vote in 2020 after the House initially passed this relief in 2019, but that attempt was single-handedly blocked by Ted Cruz.
Years of legislative stalemates and legal ping-ponging come at the expense of young immigrants and their families, who are now going through yet another episode of having to figure out what the headlines mean about their futures in this country. Many remember no place other than the United States as their home. It is cruel, and a disgrace, that despite their years of advocacy and storytelling, they continue to be left in the lurch.
“Year after year, DACA has been under attack in the courts. For hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients like me, moments like these that are spent waiting for breaking news about our lives and futures never get any easier,” said Erika Andiola, a DACA recipient and Communications Director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
She noted in a statement received by Daily Kos on Wednesday that while the policy remains partially in place, “hundreds of thousands of people are left anxiously awaiting yet another decision now from the same lower court that stopped first-time DACA applications from being accepted, that could end the program and leave us vulnerable to potential deportation.” The decision also leaves in limbo tens of thousands of young immigrants who had first-time applications pending when Hanen issued his decision.
Andiola pointed to recent news that the Biden administration has reportedly considered further executive action to protect DACA recipients in light of a negative court decision. This action would instruct federal deportation agents to refrain from targeting beneficiaries “if they aren’t deemed threats to public safety or national security,” NBC News reported. But like DACA itself, this policy could also fall to a GOP lawsuit. Andiola also noted that this policy wouldn’t protect their work permits if those were taken away by Republicans.
“Make no mistake, DACA has never been enough to protect immigrant communities long-term,” Andiola said. “The Biden administration and Congress must deliver permanent protections for immigrant communities before it's too late.”
“The Justice Department was working with the Homeland Security Department on a response to the ruling,” The New York Times said. “Department of Justice spokesperson Dena Iverson said in a statement that the department ‘respectfully disagrees with the decision and will continue to vigorously defend the lawfulness of DACA as this case proceeds,’” CNN reported.
The case could theoretically go all the way to the Supreme Court—again—but as previously noted here at Daily Kos, the makeup of the 2022 court is very different from the makeup of the 2020 court. “This decision makes 100 percent clear that the options for preserving DACA in the courts are dwindling and essentially nonexistent at this point,” National Immigration Law Center staff lawyer Jess Hanson told The New York Times. “We really need Congress to step up.”
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