“Surprising almost everyone,” Judge Andrew Hanen—the noted anti-immigrant judge who blocked Barack Obama’s 2014 immigration action—has denied Texas’s effort to immediately kill the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “This,” said reporter Cristian Farias, “is a big win for Dreamers.”
“That’s not the actual ruling,” Farias noted, “but an interlocutory order leaving [the] door open to appeal the judge’s decision to a higher court. Judge basically split the baby in half: Said Texas had the better anti-DACA argument, but ruled against it because [the] state took too long to sue over it.”
“What this does,” he continued, “in essence, is tee up DACA’s legality again before SCOTUS, which instead could end up deciding if the program was lawfully terminated.” As always, advocates are urging eligible DACA recipients to continue renewing their protections as soon as possible.