CNN
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On Friday, a federal appeals court issued a legal setback to the immigration program known as DACA, allowing the program to survive but beginning a showdown at the Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the policy was illegal, but a federal judge in Texas has suspended the entire program nationwide. He said it was a mistake to conclude that it should be. Instead, the court narrowed the injunction against parts of the program to apply only to Texas.
The ruling brings new concerns to the roughly 500,000 beneficiaries of an Obama-era program that allows undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally to live and work in the country.
The appeals court put on hold a lower court ruling that barred governments nationwide from accepting new applications for the program, meaning DACA remains largely intact for now.
“The district court erred in not severing the immunity provision from the mandate provision because[the Department of Homeland Security]intended each aspect of DACA to be separable and to function independently of each other. ” Judge Jerry Smith, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, wrote in the decision.
It’s unclear what the court’s ruling means for DACA participants in Texas who are allowed to work, said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at MALDEF, which represents DACA recipients in the case. said.
“This invalidates the portion of the DACA rule that makes DACA recipients eligible for consideration for work authorization,” Perales said.
Asked whether the ruling would strip DACA recipients of their work permits, Perales said, “The answer is not in the ruling.” “Given that even the state of Texas in this case sought relief, this is unlikely to mean an abrupt termination of work permits.”
The court said it would suspend its judgment “until further orders of this court or the Supreme Court.” It is unclear what the incoming Trump administration, which has shown hostility to DACA, will think of this ruling.
The Obama-era program has faced numerous legal challenges over the years. Under President Joe Biden, the program was codified through the federal rulemaking process, but faced further objections from a group of Republican-led states that said the program would require public health care and education dollars to be spent on public health care. He argued that this was causing damage to each state. DACA recipients.
The appeals court judges said in their ruling that the rule is “substantially identical” to the program created by a 2012 executive action and violates federal immigration law, which requires DHS to implement the DACA program. He said he didn’t give him permission to configure it.
