People gather for a rally to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in Battery Park on June 15, 2022, in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A panel of three federal judges Friday upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down the legality of a program that has shielded more than half a million people from deportation who entered the United States as children, but the judges are keeping the program in place ahead of a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s unclear how President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on Monday, will handle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. For now, the DACA program will remain, and renewals will continue, according to the ruling.
“Relying on this court’s previous decision, the district court found that Texas still has standing to challenge DACA and held that the Final Rule is substantively unlawful,” according to the ruling. “The court accordingly vacated the Rule, entered a nationwide injunction, and preserved the stay.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the Biden administration’s regulation to codify DACA violates the Immigration and Nationality Act because that act lists out which immigrants are granted legal status and DACA recipients are not included in that.
“In the INA, Congress enacted a ‘comprehensive federal statutory scheme for regulation of immigration and naturalization’ and ‘set the terms and conditions of admission to the country.’ Because it chose not to include DACA recipients in that comprehensive scheme, ‘Congress’s rigorous classification scheme forecloses the contrary scheme in the DACA Memorandum,” according to the ruling.
The panel also limited the ruling to the state of Texas, which spearheaded the lawsuit.
“Because Texas is the only plaintiff that has demonstrated or even attempted to demonstrate an actual injury, and because that injury is fully redressable by a geographically limited injunction, we narrow the scope of injunction to Texas,” according to the ruling.
The panel is also giving the government a chance to appeal.
Trump initially tried to end the program during his first term, but recently said that he’s willing to work with Democrats to strike a deal to allow DACA recipients to remain in the country. Lawmakers have remained skeptical.
The Friday decision means that the more than 500,000 recipients are still allowed to renew their work permits, but no new applicants are allowed to be processed.
“Though Texas has succeeded on the merits, our previous decision to maintain the stay─not to mention the immense reliance interests that DACA has created─guide us to preserve the stay as to the existing applicants,” according to the ruling.
October arguments
The appeals court heard oral arguments in October on behalf of the program from the Justice Department, the state of New Jersey and the immigration rights group Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
They argued on the legality of the Biden administration’s 2021 final rule to codify DACA.
They also argued that the state of Texas, along with eight states that joined the suit against the Biden administration’s final DACA rule, do not have standing.
Those other states challenging DACA include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas and Mississippi.
The state of Texas argued that DACA harmed the Lone Star state because there is a “pocketbook cost to Texas with regard to education and medical care.”
The three judges are Jerry Edwin Smith, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan; Edith Brown Clement, appointed by former President George W. Bush; and Stephen A. Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama.
The 5th Circuit in New Orleans, which typically delivers conservative rulings, covers Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.