A federal appeals trial that will decide the fate of the Deferred Action for Undocumented Youth (DACA) program is starting in earnest.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will begin a two-week hearing on whether DACA is unconstitutional from the 6th.
In July of last year, a Texas District Court ruled that the DACA program was illegal, ordering it to stop accepting new DACA applicants.
The outcome of this appeal will affect whether DACA is legal, as well as the resumption of processing for new applicants.
The DACA program, introduced as an executive order by the Barack Obama administration on June 15, 2012, has been evaluated to have prevented the deportation of undocumented youth, called “dreamers,” and opened the way for them to continue their studies and employment.
However, DACA has been engulfed in litigation over the past decade and has been on the verge of extinction. It has been a constant target of opponents of DACA because it is based on an executive order that has not been passed through the legislative process in Congress.
In August of last year, Texas District Court Judge Andrew Hannon ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a DACA lawsuit filed against the federal government by nine states, including Texas.
However, while Judge Hannon ruled that DACA was illegal, it maintained protections for existing beneficiaries. As a result, the approval of new DACA applicants is currently suspended, but existing DACA beneficiaries will continue to receive deferred deportation and work permits and can be renewed every two years.
Immigration law experts expect the legal battle over DACA will eventually reach the Supreme Court. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled to maintain DACA, but this did not deal with the legality of DACA itself, but rather on whether the former administration of Donald Trump’s attempt to repeal DACA was legal.
At the time, the Supreme Court upheld DACA, 5-4, arguing that the Trump administration had failed to provide a proper reason for repealing DACA.
However, unlike at the time, the current composition of the Supreme Court is composed of 6 conservatives and 3 liberals, and the Supreme Court is predominantly conservative. For this reason, there is a concern that if the appeal court finds that the DACA is unlawful, the Supreme Court may also make an unfavorable decision.
The surest way for DACA to survive is for the federal legislature to take legislative action but given the stalemate in the political circles ahead of the midterm elections in November, the common view of the US government is that it is unlikely to materialize within this year.