Today is Monday, July 27, over a month and some change since the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration unlawfully terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and officials have still refused to announce that the program has been fully reopened. Instead, a Justice Department attorney appeared in telephonic hearing on Friday in separate litigation over the program to say that new applications were being neither rejected nor accepted, but were instead being “held,” like some limbo, and “placed into a bucket” as the administration ponders repeating its unpopular decision to end the popular program.
So, defying not one, but two courts by not officially accepting new applications from eligible applicants, and instead just … holding them. Presumably while taking their filing fees, too.
The Washington Post reports that Justice Department attorney Stephen Pezzi’s court appearance marks “the first time the administration addressed reports” that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has refused to officially accept new applicants following the Supreme Court’s decision, and a second ruling from a Maryland judge a little over a week ago.
“U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm, who ordered last week that the government comply with court directives to restore the DACA program, ruled Friday that the Trump administration must clarify the program’s status to the public within 30 days,” the report said. “Grimm also instructed the plaintiffs and defendants to propose a schedule for a briefing on whether the government should be held in contempt.”
Politico’s reading of the hearing noted that Grimm “said he was troubled” that USCIS has failed to update its website following the Supreme Court’s decision, which was most certainly not the case when the administration was fighting to end the program. “In contrast, when the administration ended DACA, USCIS updated their website within 24 hours,” The American Prospect reported earlier this month, “and when the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling requiring USCIS to continue accepting DACA renewals, the USCIS website was also updated within 24 hours.”
“Grimm also expressed concern about the government’s admission that some new DACA applicants have received letters in recent weeks saying their applications were denied because DHS isn’t accepting new applicants,” Politico continued, “even though the Supreme Court ordered the agency to return to the status quo in 2017, when it was accepting new applications."
I’m not a legal expert, but things seem pretty clear this time around too. DACA should and must be reopened to new applicants. But because this racist administration is pissed it lost on one of its biggest immigration fights, it’s just going to stall in complete defiance of the courts. It’s unclear why the judge has given the administration time to clarify the program’s status when the order was to reopen the program, or why contempt is still a question when the inaction is staring us right in the face, as legislators noted in a recent letter.
”Your administration’s refusal to carry out the Court’s directive is an illegal usurpation of authority in violation of the separation of powers,” House Judiciary leaders Jerry Nadler and Zoe Lofgren told Trump last week. “As Congress, the federal courts, and the public have repeatedly reminded you: ‘Presidents are not kings.’ Failure to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgment is illegal, unconstitutional, and effectively an act of tyranny. You must immediately direct USCIS to process new applications for DACA.”