A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Trump and his team goofed in trying to cancel the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant “Dreamers,” saying that while they may have the power to erase the program, they must do it properly.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the administration cut corners and gave an unconvincing explanation of why it thought it had to phase out the DACA program.
Without a better explanation, the decision was arbitrary — a violation of federal procedural law, the court ruled.
“The executive wields awesome power in the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws. Our decision today does not curb that power, but rather enables its exercise in a manner that is free from legal misconceptions and is democratically accountable to the public,” wrote Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, an Obama appointee to the appeals court.
The decision is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Indeed the Justice Department earlier this month had asked the high court to hear a series of DACA cases even before they were decided in lower courts, saying it was critical the justices tackle the matter this term.
DACA is the 2012 program set up by President Obama that granted a tentative amnesty from deportation to hundreds of thousands of Dreamers — illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, grew up here, and in many cases don’t know their home countries.
The program has always been legally suspect and eight months after Mr. Trump took office, facing the immediate threat of a lawsuit, the administration announced it would attempt a phaseout.
That sparked a series of lawsuits, and produced a number of rulings by judges who said the phaseout was poorly justified.
At the same time another court ruled the original DACA program itself was likely illegal.
As the cases move through the courts the program remains in effect, protecting Dreamers who’d already been approved. But it is not accepting new applications....