A federal court in Texas examines on Thursday the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protects from deportation and allows more than half a million young people who arrived in the country irregularly when they were children by the hand of their parents (known as dreamers).
The same judge who in 2021 declared this program illegal (approved by former President Barack Obama in 2012) analyzes again the lawsuit of nine Republican states. In his first ruling, the judge allowed DACA to continue standing (although without admitting new recipients) while the Justice Department and the dreamers appealed his decision. In October 2022, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals returned the case to him to analyze the modification approved by the Joe Biden government to shield the program.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, based in Houston, Texas, will hear from Justice Department attorneys on Thursday; to the dreamers involved in the case; and lawyers from Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi, who are calling for an end to DACA.
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DACA gives 580,000 recipients (according to December data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) the opportunity to live and work legally in the United States, but it does not guarantee a path to citizenship. Despite having debated it on numerous occasions, Congress has not managed to pass a law in more than a decade that crystallizes Barack Obama's executive order.
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In February, the nine states again asked the judge to declare the government's amendment, which went into effect, illegal andprevent new permits from being approved. They argue that the updated program is essentially the same as 2012 and remains "unconstitutional." And they denounce that Biden exceeded his authority by granting benefits that correspond to Congress.
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The Justice Department argues that states cannot demonstrate any direct harm to them because of DACA and that Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security the "authority and duty to set immigration enforcement policies."
"DACA is legal. DACA is consistent with the many policies of the government in the past under different presidents," said Nina Perales of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who speaks before the judge on behalf of the dreamers.
Hanen is not expected to rule immediately after Thursday's hearing. But probably his final decision, when he makes it, ends up in the Supreme Court... for the third time.
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In 2016, the high court reached an impasse with a 4-4 draw over DACA. In 2020, it ruled 5-4 that former President Donald Trump's administration improperly ended DACA, allowing it to remain in place.
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