By Juan A. Lozano The Associated Press
The Justice Department and a civil rights group filed legal notices Thursday, saying they intend to appeal a federal judge's recent ruling that outlawed a revised version of a program that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants brought to the U.S. as children.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston ruled in September in favor of Texas and eight other states that are calling for a halt to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. That federal policy was originally established by the Obama administration in 2012.
In his ruling, Hanen expressed solidarity with DACA recipients and their families, but said the executive branch had exceeded its authority in establishing the program, and that it was up to Congress to intervene in this matter.
Susana Lujano, left, a Dreamer from Mexico living in Houston, joins other activists to rally in support of DACA at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 2022.J. Scott Applewhite/AP
[DACA Remains in Effect Despite Being Declared Illegal Again: What's Changing for Dreamers and What the Future of the Program Holds]
In other appeals notices filed Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice, representing the federal government, and the nonprofit Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is representing DACA recipients in the lawsuit, said they plan to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans annul Hanen's judgment;
The Texas attorney general's office, which represented the states in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The appellate process, including the filing of legal briefs, likely oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit judges and the issuance of a ruling, is expected to take months to complete. But in the long run, the fate of the DACA program is expected to end up for the third time before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hanen's order expanded the existing injunction against DACA, which barred the government from approving new applications but left the program intact for existing recipients, known as Dreamers, during the ongoing legal review.
At the end of March, there were 578,680 people enrolled in the DACA program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Texas and the other states in the lawsuit have argued that the Obama administration did not have the authority to create the program, and that they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on health care, education and other costs when migrants are allowed to stay in the country illegally. The states are Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas, and Mississippi.
Proponents of the program have argued that Congress has given the federal government the legal authority to set immigration enforcement policies.
Congress has failed many times to pass the DREAM Act to protect DACA recipients.
Hanen had already outlawed the program in 2021. President Joe Biden's administration tried to address Hanen's concerns with a new version of DACA, but was rebuffed with the September ruling.