A federal judge ruled Wednesday against President Biden’s attempt to preserve and update the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant “Dreamers,” leaving hundreds of thousands of them to worry about their status.
Judge Andrew Hanen said his ruling is not an attack on the Dreamers themselves, and indeed he said there’s evidence that DACA has been “beneficial to the country.” But he said the program, a creation of the executive branch, oversteps the boundaries of immigration law set by Congress.
But the judge stayed his ruling, which means Dreamers already in the program can remain protected while his ruling is appealed. No new applicants can be approved, however.
Judge Hanen said the program, which grants a tentative legal status to about 600,000 illegal immigrants, was intended to be a short-term bridge for Dreamers, but it has expanded far beyond that.
“DACA has now entered its second decade and DHS clearly intends to continue the congressionally unauthorized program indefinitely,” he wrote. “While this Court and others — including at least two Presidents and two DHS Secretaries — have suggested that only Congress has the authority to implement a permanent DACA-like program, DHS’s current position seems to indicate a contrary intention. This is epitome of ‘the Executive seizing the power of the Legislature.’”
That last phrase was taken from the Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down another expansive Biden executive action to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans.
DACA applies to illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children under age 16 and before June 15, 2007. They must have kept a relatively clean record and be pursuing an education or have military service.
They are still considered unauthorized migrants but DACA’s reward is a stay of deportation, which can be renewed every two years, and a work permit that allows them to legally hold jobs, and brings some other taxpayer benefits.
The deportation amnesty is less important — few Dreamers would be priorities for deportation anyway — but the work permit is the crux of the program, allowing the illegal immigrants to compete for jobs and build economic power.
Judge Hanen pointed out in his ruling that the Biden administration also intended to create a pathway to citizenship for some DACA recipients, using what’s known as “advance parole” to let Dreamers adjust their status to lawful.
The ruling is the latest in a decade-long legal battle over DACA, and Judge Hanen, a Bush appointee, has been at the center of much of that.
In 2015, when the Obama administration tried to expand DACA to include millions of illegal immigrants, he ruled it illegal.
The Trump administration took office and tried to phase out the program, but the Supreme Court ruled the president’s team cut too many corners.
The Biden administration then tried to revive the program, but Texas sued and Judge Hanen ruled the program illegal. As the case raced through appeals, the administration released a new regulation meant to put DACA on firmer legal footing.
Wednesday’s ruling dealt specifically with that new regulation, saying it doesn’t cure the repeated legal problems Judge Hanen and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have identified in DACA.
DACA backers denounced the ruling.
“It’s angering to live life in this way, at the mercy of court decisions which are based on politics,” said Areli Hernandez, director of external affairs at the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
But more than the judge, DACA recipients fumed that Congress has failed to act.
Legislation granting Dreamers a firm pathway to citizenship has been introduced in every Congress for decades, but it has always stumbled.
The most recent best chance came with Mr. Trump, who proposed coupling a legalization of DACA recipients with funding for his border wall, and tweaks to limit the chain of family migration. Democrats rejected that deal.
Mr. Trump ended up constructing hundreds of miles of fencing anyway.
Democrats, meanwhile, have expanded their legalization demands to include more illegal immigrants beyond Dreamers.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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