(Associated Press photo)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to keep in place a program that protects young immigrants from deportation.
The temporary ruling by Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn means that President Donald Trump cannot end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by March 5, when the program officially expires.
The decision came thanks to a lawsuit against the Trump administration filed by the University of California system, among others.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in September that the Trump administration planned to scuttle the program, saying that former President Barack Obama violated the constitution when he created it.
The government will now have to keep the program in place as it was before Sessions’ announcement, and continue processing DACA renewal applications.
Still, Garaufis said that Trump “indisputably” has the power to end the DACA program, but needs a valid reason for doing so.
Garaufis said that current reasons to end the program are “arbitrary” and “capricious.”
The decision was the second time a federal judge has blocked Trump’s plans to end the program as several lawsuits challenging the end to DACA work their way through the courts.
Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to scrap the DACA program, an echo of Republicans’ hardline approach to immigration issues.
Created in 2012 by Obama, the DACA program allows people who immigrated illegally with their parents before their 16th birthday, and who do not have serious crimes on their record, to receive a renewable two-year period of deportation protection, and eligibility for a work permit.
An estimated 787,580 people have benefitted from the program.
Watsonville immigration attorney Doug Keegan said the ruling comes as welcome relief for the immigrants who were facing the end of their DACA authorization.
Now, those immigrants can apply for another two-year renewal, Keegan said.
“That group was shut out of renewing after the September announcement,” he said. “It’s really been a huge bonus for the DACA recipients whose current DACA was expiring on March 5.”
Keegan stressed that anyone wishing to extend their DACA authorization should do so as soon as possible.
