CNN
—
Nine Republican-led states on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Texas to block a rule that would protect some 600,000 illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
This is the latest move in the ongoing legal battle over the Obama-era Deferred Action for Child Arrivals Program (DACA) to help hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries who could legally live and work in the United States. It poses yet another threat.
The Biden administration last year announced rules to “maintain and strengthen” the DACA program, largely upholding the standards of the program. The rules were released while litigation regarding previous memos regarding the program was ongoing.
Months later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit largely upheld the district court’s ruling that DACA was illegal, but sent the case to a lower court to determine the legality of the new rules that strengthened the program. I sent it back.
On Tuesday, Republican-led states called the rule “illegal” and called for it to be blocked.
“The final rule as the latest statement of the DACA program is illegal in substance for the same reasons as the DACA memorandum. (with prudent transition for existing DACA recipients),” the filing says.
The case is before Judge Andrew Hannen of the Southern District of Texas, who ruled in July 2021 that DACA was illegal and blocked the government from approving new applications for the program. . However, Hanen’s order allowed the program to continue for current registrants while the lawsuit was pending. It continues today.
Immigration advocates and administrators argue that Congress is responsible for providing protection for DACA recipients.
Democrats and Republicans sympathize with the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, many of them under the age of 10. Achieving a bipartisan compromise is difficult.
