Texas Federal Judge Ruled DACA as Illegal and Blocked New Applicants

On Friday, a Texas Federal Judge ruled that DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is illegal and blocked new applicants to the program. The ruling from Judge Andrew Hanen will bar future applications and does not immediately cancel the current permits of more than 650,000 ‘Dreamers’. DACA was created in 2012 and was intended to provide temporary reprieve to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and are now adults. Hanen ruled that Congress had not granted the Department of Homeland Security the authority to create DACA and that it prevented immigration officials from enforcing removal provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. On Saturday President Biden called the ruling ‘deeply disappointing’ and said the U.S. Department of Justice intends to appeal the decision. Also on Saturday, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said his department will “engage the public in a rule-making process to preserve and fortify DACA,” as well as “continue processing DACA renewal requests, consistent with the ruling.”