WASHINGTON: In the middle of an intense political fight about the programme that shields from deportation young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children, a federal judge in California late Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction ordering the Trump administration to start the programme back up again.
Saying the decision to kill it was improper, Judge William Alsup of US District Court in San Francisco wrote that the administration must “maintain the DACA programmeme on a nationwide basis” as the legal challenge to the president’s decision goes forward.
President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, known as DACA, in 2012 to also give young immigrants the ability to work legally in the United States. President Donald Trump moved to end the programme in September, saying that Obama’s actions were unconstitutional and an overreach of executive power.
That decision has set off a fierce debate in Washington as Democrats and Republicans spar over how to provide relief for about 800,000 immigrants who could face deportation when the programme ends March 5. Trump met with lawmakers Tuesday afternoon in a remarkable, hourlong televised meeting to begin negotiations.
But critics of the president’s decision to end the policy, including several states and organisations, had already sued the administration, saying that shutting down the programme was arbitrary and done without following the proper procedures.
One of the lead plaintiffs in the case, Janet Napolitano, is the president of the University of California system of colleges but was the secretary of homeland security for Obama in 2012 and was an architect of the DACA programme.
In his ruling, Alsup questioned the administration’s contention that the DACA programme had not been put into place legally. He asserted that the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security had long had the authority to grant the kind of temporary protections that formed the basis of the programme.
Legal wrangling
Alsup also cited several of Trump’s tweets that expressed support for the programme. He noted that in September, the president wrote: “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!” Such tweets, the judge said, bolstered the idea that keeping the programme going was in the public’s interest.
The judge wrote that previous beneficiaries of DACA, known as Dreamers, must be allowed to renew their status in the programme, although the government will not be required to accept new applications from immigrants who had not previously submitted one. The judge also said the administration could continue to prevent DACA recipients from returning to the United States if they leave the country.
It was unclear what the legal effect could be from the judge’s ruling, but the Trump administration may be headed for more intense legal wrangling like the kind that happened after the president’s travel bans.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Devin O’Malley, said that the ruling did not change the department’s stance.
“DACA was implemented unilaterally after Congress declined to extend these benefits to this same group of illegal aliens,” he said. “As such, it was an unlawful circumvention of Congress and was susceptible to the same legal challenges that effectively ended DACA. The Department of Homeland Security therefore acted within its lawful authority in deciding to wind down DACA in an orderly manner. Promoting and enforcing the rule of law is vital to protecting a nation, its borders and its citizens.”
The administration could quickly appeal the judge’s ruling, hoping that an appeals court would prevent the injunction from taking effect and allowing the shutdown of the DACA programme as the president announced in September.
But such a ruling could itself be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, potentially tying up the fate of the DACA programme for days, weeks or longer.
Either way, the ruling could have serious political effect.
Political solution
If the court’s order to restart the DACA programme stands, that could take pressure off Republicans and Democrats to find a political solution for the young immigrants who could be deported if the programme ends.
Almost immediately after the president rescinded the DACA programme in September, Trump expressed sympathy for the young immigrants who were children when their parents brought them to the country illegally. Trump repeated his sympathies Tuesday at the White House meeting.
Democrats have seized on the president’s attitude, urging their Republican colleagues to support legislation that would permanently legalise the Dreamers to work in the United States and give them an eventual path to American citizenship.
But hard-line conservatives say that would amount to an amnesty programme for lawbreakers, and some Republicans in Congress have been pressing for other immigration changes before they will support legislation for the Dreamers.
In particular, Republicans at the White House meeting demanded an end to rules that allow immigrants to sponsor their extended family members — aunts, uncles, cousins — to enter the United States. And they want an end to a State Department visa lottery programme that prioritises legal immigration from certain countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Camille Mackler, the director of immigration legal policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, said that while advocates were relieved that more DACA recipients would be able to renew their membership, they expected the government to appeal the ruling.
In the meantime, she said, only legislation offering legal status to Dreamers would suffice to protect them.
“This is not a win for us,” Mackler said. “We’re obviously glad that this is going to provide some relief, but what we really need is a clean Dream Act,” a reference to a bill that only legalises the young immigrants without also imposing other immigration changes that Republicans are demanding.
