Biden says U.S. will appeal DACA ruling and Congress must act
President Biden said the U.S. will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the DACA program protecting hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” who came to the country as children was implemented unconstitutionally, and he renewed his call for Congress to agree on a permanent solution.
“Yesterday’s Federal court ruling is deeply disappointing,” Biden said in a statement Saturday. “The Department of Justice intends to appeal this decision in order to preserve and fortify DACA.”
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Houston issued his ruling Friday in a suit brought by Republican-led states over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was implemented by the Obama administration on behalf of almost 650,000 Dreamers fighting to stay in the country.
“Although Congress may someday enact such a Dream Act, until it does, its continued failure to pass bills coextensive with the DACA population evinces a rejection of this policy,” Hanen said in a 77-page decision, which noted widespread sympathy for Dreamers. “As much as this court might agree with these sentiments, and as popular as this program might be, the proper origination point for DACA was, and is, Congress.”
The ruling comes amid a continuing humanitarian crisis: Since the start of the year, U.S. authorities have apprehended or denied entry to more than 200,000 Central Americans at the southern U.S. border, expelling many of them to Mexico.
Hanen said it would be too disruptive to the lives of Dreamers in the existing program to end it immediately. He ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to continue renewing permits for current enrollees and to not reject any renewals because of his order, while he gives Congress and the administration time to figure out how to cure the legal defects that undermined the program.
A federal judge in Texas has approved a request by a group of states to end an Obama-era program that shielded young immigrants from deportation.
Biden said the ruling underscores the urgency that Congress, through the process known as reconciliation or other means, pass a law to “finally provide security to all Dreamers, who have lived too long in fear.”
One of Biden’s first actions as president was an executive order for DHS to “preserve and fortify” DACA, and the agency says it will undergo the formal rule-making process Texas claims Obama illegally skipped. The U.S. House has passed a bill to give all DACA recipients lawful permanent residency. A bipartisan companion bill that protects Dreamers is under consideration in the Senate.
While none of the young people is at immediate risk of either deportation or losing work authorization, the judge effectively said rescuing Dreamers is a job for Congress and the Biden administration, which have failed to reach agreement on what to do with them. The legal challenge moves next to the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which now includes six judges appointed by former President Trump.
Hanen’s decision ultimately sets the case back on track to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in June 2020 that Trump couldn’t arbitrarily end DACA without following federal rule-making procedures and providing a good explanation. The Texas challenge asked the same legal question in reverse, whether former President Obama violated federal procedures when he implemented DACA without congressional approval in 2012.
Friday’s ruling was no surprise, given Hanen’s previous conclusion in a related case that DACA appeared unconstitutional but that ending it would be like trying to unscramble an egg.
Hanen ruled that Obama skipped the same required rule-making steps as Trump. But the judge indicated DACA might yet be saved if the Biden administration gave the public time to comment on a new version of DACA before a reconstituted program is put into place.
Texas’ Brooks County and the Rio Grande Valley to the south have been popular smuggling routes for decades. Six months into 2021, deaths in the county had already reached 55, up from a total of 34 last year.
Representatives of Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, who spearheaded the states’ fight against DACA, didn’t immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment.
The Dreamers had support in court from a broad coalition of civil rights groups, business associations, healthcare organizations and academic institutions.
They argued DACA recipients will contribute as much as $460 billion to U.S gross domestic product by 2028, according to a study by the Center for American Progress. Companies will have to spend $6.3 billion to hire replacements if Dreamers lose their jobs, the study found.
Texas claimed it had spent at least $250 million annually providing education, healthcare and law enforcement services to immigrants in the country illegally, costs that justify court protection from the program’s financial harm.
Hanen said Friday that the 5th Circuit has already rejected the balancing argument that the Dreamers’ economic contribution outweighs their social cost to the states where they live and receive services. But he clearly wanted to avoid throwing the lives of so many young people into chaos, saying they were on the wrong side of the law through no fault of their own.
Texas, in addition to the DACA challenge, also persuaded a federal judge to block the plan Biden announced after taking office in January to halt deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally for 100 days. The proposed deportation freeze was part of a broader effort to roll back Trump policies and work toward nationwide immigration reform.
Senators grilled Texas Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, President Biden’s nominee to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at his confirmation hearing.
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