Posted on July 17, 2021

DACA Immigration Program Invalidated by Federal Judge

Brent Kendall and Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2021

A federal judge in Texas on Friday invalidated an Obama-era initiative that provided deportation protections and work permits to some young immigrants, a ruling that places the program in jeopardy.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was unlawful because Congress never gave the executive branch the power to grant mass reprieves to immigrants who are in the U.S. without authorization.

Judge Hanen’s ruling barred the Biden administration from approving new DACA applications, but the judge stayed the immediate effect of his ruling on current DACA recipients.

The program has offered temporary protections to any immigrants in the country without legal authorization who were 30 or younger when the program was announced. DACA recipients must have arrived in the U.S. by 2007, before they turned 16, and satisfied other conditions, including being a student or graduate and having no significant criminal record.

{snip}

The ruling could create fresh urgency in Congress to find a permanent solution for the Dreamers, after bipartisan talks to strike a deal stalled this spring amid an ongoing migration surge at the southern border. {snip}