The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a project that was initiated by President Barrack Obama on June 15, 2012.
The policy is a kind of administrative relief from deportation. The purpose of DACA is to protect eligible immigrant youth who came to the United States when they were children from deportation. DACA gives young undocumented immigrants protection from deportation and a work permit. The program expires after two years, subject to renewal. It, however, does not provide a path to citizenship as compared to the Dream Act.
After Obama announced his plan to expand the policy to cover additional illegal aliens, numerous states sued to stop it, and the Supreme Court ultimately blocked the expansion. On June 16, 2017, the United States Department of homeland security rescinded the expansion and the Trump administration ordered the phase-out of the program as of September 5th, 2017 while still giving a six month period for Congress to pass the Dream Act that will provide a chance for immigrants to become legal citizens of the U.S.
In April, a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reinstate the DACA program and gave DHS 90 days to provide legal justification for rescinding the program. U.S. District Judge John Bates was withering in his 60-page ruling, calling the administration’s attempts to end the program “arbitrary,” “capricious,” “virtually unexplained” and “unlawful.”
After the DHS presented their justification, Judge John Bates made a ruling on August 3rd that the reasons cited were not sufficient enough to warrant the cancellation of the DACA policy. If DHS does not appeal the decision by the 23rd of August, the government will be required to accept new DACA applications.
As of now, the USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. USCIS is not accepting requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017. However, another federal judge in Texas will soon hear a similar argument in a case attempting shut down DACA completely.
Things seem to be pointing towards DACA heading to the Supreme Court (though not yet confirmed). As Goldberg & associates, we will closely follow on the proceedings as they continue and provide updates.
Recent Comments