President Barack Obama did not have the legal authority to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which offers protections from deportation for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
Why it matters: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered the Biden administration to cease approving new DACA applications but specified that the decision would not affect current recipients for now.
- This order developed out of a challenge to the program filed by the attorneys general for nine Republican-led states, including Texas, who argued that DACA was improperly adopted and financially burdened them by making them pay for DACA recipients' education and health care.
What they're saying: U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen held that the creation of the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
- "To be clear, the order does not require [the Department of Homeland Security] or the Department of Justice to take any immigration, deportation or criminal action against any DACA recipient, applicant, or any other individual that it would not otherwise take," Hanen wrote.
The big picture: Congress has for years tried to pass a legislative solution that would allow DACA recipients to live permanently in the United States, but those efforts have repeatedly failed.
- "[T]he court takes position on how DHS (or Congress, should it decide to take up the issue) should resolve these considerations, so long as that resolution complies with the law," Hanen wrote.
What's next: The case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit...