Federal Court Denies Preliminary Injunction Against DACA Program

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At a glance

• A federal judge has denied the State of Texas’s request to halt the DACA program while a lawsuit challenging the program goes forward.
• DACA beneficiaries can continue to apply to renew their benefits, pursuant to prior orders from federal courts in California and New York.
• A District of Columbia federal judge’s August 3 court order requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to fully reinstate DACA – including new applications and requests for advance parole – remains stayed to allow DHS time to appeal.

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The situation

Federal District Judge Andrew S. Hanen has denied the State of Texas’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but stayed his decision for 21 days to allow the parties time to pursue an appeal of the denial. The case is Texas v. United States, a lawsuit charging that the Department of Homeland Security failed to follow proper procedure when it implemented the DACA program in 2012.

Though Judge Hanen found that Texas and the other plaintiff U.S. states had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim and irreparable injury, he determined that the interests of DACA beneficiaries outweighed those of the plaintiffs, particularly in view of the fact that the plaintiffs had waited some six years to challenge the DACA program. In 2015, Judge Hanen ruled against the Obama Administration’s planned expansion of DACA.

What this means

The decision means that DACA beneficiaries can still apply to renew their benefits, pursuant to prior court orders from federal courts in California and New York.

However, new DACA applications and requests for advance parole cannot be filed. On August 3, 2018, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Department of Homeland Security to fully reinstate the DACA program – including new applications and applications for advance parole – but stayed his order to allow the government to appeal. That stay remains in place as of today. The cases are Trustees of Princeton University v. United States and NAACP v. Trump.

Fragomen is monitoring the various DACA lawsuits closely and will provide updates as developments occur.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.