A federal appeals court ruled against an Obama-era program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of undocumented people from deportation. In a decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), the three-judge panel stopped short of allowing current beneficiaries to be deported and stayed its decision to allow the ruling to be appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit opinion is the latest turn in a long-running fight over DACA, which President-elect Trump tried to kill during his first term. A Texas federal judge ruled DACA unlawful in 2021. The appeals court ruled that an injunction ordered by the lower court for the entire U.S. should be limited to Texas, and that current DACA recipients could continue to renew their status nationwide, the New York Times reports.
No current DACA beneficiary is immediately vulnerable to deportation. They will also be able to continue working in the U.S. legally, likely until an appeals process runs its course. About 540,000 people are enrolled in the program. DACA beneficiaries, nicknamed Dreamers, have been able to obtain driver’s licenses in states that do not issue them to unauthorized immigrants. They have qualified for in-state tuition rates and state-funded educational grants and loans in some states, as well as health care. The average age of recipients was 21 when the program was established. Now, most are in their 30s. Many have completed college, built careers and started families If DACA were to end, they would no longer be authorized to work in the U.S. Some large employers, including IBM, Verizon and Starbucks, told the Fifth Circuit that ending DACA would harm the U.S. economy. If the Trump administration again tries to terminate DACA, the case could still be appealed — as it was during Trump’s first term — and would likely return to the Supreme Court.
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