Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was always unconstitutional. I knew it. You knew it. Democrats knew it. Obama knew it. Yet somehow it always seemed to survive legal challenges. Well, finally, a federal appeals court has ruled that this Obama-era program is, in fact, unconstitutional—a timely gift for Trump mere days before he takes office.
A federal appeals court on Friday declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy unlawful, casting a cloud of uncertainty over more than half a million unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
A panel of judges before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that found that a Biden administration rule to codify DACA violated U.S. immigration law. The 2012 Obama administration memo that originally created the policy has also been found to be unlawful by federal courts.
Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a catch. According to the article, “the panel of judges kept DACA alive for current recipients and closed to new applicants.”
The ruling is nevertheless long overdue. For over 12 years, DACA has granted hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came here illegally or overstayed their visas as minors the ability to live and work here without fear of deportation.
As I mentioned above, even Obama knew the program was illegal.
“Comprehensive [immigration] reform, that’s how we’re going to solve this problem,” Obama said in 2010. “Anybody who tells you it’s going to be easy or that I can wave a magic wand and make it happen hasn’t been paying attention to how this town works.”
It wasn’t the only time he said so, either. However, when the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act failed to pass Congress, Obama did, in fact, wave his executive pen and just created the program via executive fiat.
Related: 10 Times Barack Obama Acknowledged That DACA Was Unconstitutional
In 2020, the Supreme Court blocked an attempt by the Trump administration to kill the program on procedural grounds, leaving the program in a state of limbo.
The Trump transition team did not immediately say how the incoming administration would approach DACA. Trump and his advisers have pledged to launch a sweeping crackdown on illegal and legal immigration, vowing to oversee mass deportations of those living in the U.S. illegally, enact tougher border controls and cut legal admissions of immigrants and refugees.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the 5th Circuit's ruling "a win for Texas."
"I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to ensure that the rule of law is restored, and the illegal immigration crisis is finally stopped," Paxton said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Greisa Martinez Rosas, the executive director of United We Dream, a progressive group that advocates on behalf of DACA beneficiaries, denounced the court order as an "attack" on "immigrant young people."
While President Biden’s Justice Department has fought vigorously to defend DACA in court, the new Trump administration most certainly won’t, and may seek to terminate the program outright. Friday’s ruling will likely set the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally resolve the prolonged legal battle over DACA.
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