News / Politics

In rebuke to Trump, judge orders US govt. to reinstate DACA as it existed under Obama

Saturday, 05 December 2020 9:53 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 05 December 2020 9:55 AM ]

People demonstrate in June in Los Angeles in favor of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (Photo by AP)

In a rebuke to President Donald Trump, a judge has ordered his administration to fully restore DACA, a program that protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

The ruling by US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn on Friday will open the door to new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was created by former President Barack Obama in 2019.

As part of his zero-tolerance immigration policy, President Trump moved to dismantle the program in 2017. In June, the Supreme Court ruled the administration’s effort to end DACA was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Following the ruling, DHS Secretary Chad Wolf issued a memo in July that continued to block new applications, while restricting employment authorization to one year.

States including California and New York, DACA enrollees and civil rights groups sued to block the administration’s plan to rescind the program. Lower courts in California, New York and the District of Columbia ruled against Trump and left DACA in place.

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In his ruling on Friday, Garaufis said the terms of DACA must be immediately restored to what they were "prior to the attempted rescission of September 2017." The judge also instructed officials to reinstate two-year permits for qualifying applicants.

The district judge found last month that Wolf had been unlawfully appointed to his post, meaning he did not have the authority to issue the memorandum on DACA.

The federal program currently protects about 640,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children. An additional 300,000 young immigrants are believed to be eligible for the program but have been denied a chance to apply.

“The ruling is a huge victory for people who have been waiting to apply for DACA for the first time,” Veronica Garcia, staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said in a statement.

She added that the "decision to suspend the program was just another attempt by the Trump administration to wield its extremely racist and anti-immigrant views and policies.”

Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20, has said he plans to revitalize DACA.

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