Posted on 10/10/2024 9:27:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A federal appeals court will hear arguments on a high-stakes case that could determine whether hundreds of thousands of people will lose their ability to work and remain in the United States.
On Oct. 10, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will revisit the case challenging Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which since 2012 has shielded more than 830,000 people who came to the United States illegally as children from deportation and provided them with renewable work permits.
The prolonged legal battle over the fate of DACA, which was promulgated through executive action by President Barack Obama and never approved by Congress, dated back to 2018 when Texas and eight other Republican-led states filed a lawsuit, arguing that the Obama administration had overstepped its authority to create an immigration program without congressional consent.
In July 2021, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled in favor of the states, declaring DACA unlawful. However, he stopped short of terminating the program, saying that “hundreds of thousands of individual DACA recipients, along with their employers, states and loved ones, have come to rely on the DACA program.”
As part of Hanen’s ruling, federal immigration officials could continue processing DACA renewals, but they are barred from accepting first-time applications.
The Biden administration appealed the decision, and in October 2022, the Fifth Circuit agreed with Hanen that Obama’s 2012 memo creating DACA was unlawful.
Still, it allowed current DACA recipients to continue renewing their status and sent the case back to the district court to assess the impact of a Biden administration policy that incorporated DACA into the federal regulations.
Shortly thereafter, Hanen ruled against the 2022 DACA regulation, but again fell short of ordering an immediate end to the program. The federal government has since appealed, and the case is now once again before the Fifth Circuit.
It is unlikely the three-judge panel will issue a ruling immediately following the October 10 oral arguments. A decision could take weeks or even months, and any outcome is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If that happens, it would be the second time in four years that the legality of DACA is heard by the nation’s highest court.
In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 to preserve DACA, finding that President Donald Trump’s administration had acted arbitrarily in his efforts to terminate the program.
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a nonprofit legal group representing DACA recipients in the case, expects the Supreme Court to take up the case during its October 2025 term.
However, if the Fifth Circuit issues a ruling sooner, the case could be heard as early as the current term, with a decision by June 2025.
“It’s important to note that even if the Fifth Circuit rules DACA is unlawful, it won’t necessarily order an immediate end to DACA, but could permit current recipients to continue to renew,” MALDEF said on its website.
According to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), more than 535,000 people in the United States have active DACA status as of June. Most recipients are between the ages of 31 and 40.
The vast majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico, with around 81 percent (433,840) born there. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru round out the top five countries of origin.
DACA beneficiaries are spread across the United States but are heavily concentrated in states that are traditional immigrant destinations. California (150,090) and Texas (89,360) together account for 44 percent of all DACA recipients, followed by Illinois (28,330), New York (21,250), and Florida (21,170). These top five states have remained unchanged since 2017.
At the local level, the Los Angeles metropolitan area has the largest concentration of DACA recipients, with over 10 percent living there. Other major metroplexes, such as New York, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago, each host around 30,000 DACA participants.
While DACA protects recipients from deportation and provides work authorization, it does not offer a pathway to permanent residency or U.S. citizenship. According to the USCIS, DACA is not a lawful immigration status but rather classifies recipients as low-priority for removal.
“Deferred action is a form of prosecutorial discretion that does not confer lawful permanent resident status or a path to citizenship,” the USCIS said on its website. “Only Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights.”
So, by their logic all murder, rape etc... is unlawful, but you can keep doing it because you rely on it??
I’m not so much worried about the less than a million DACA folks as I am the 20 million or more who poured in over the last 4 years.
They are making the exact same argument they made in favor of keeping their Slaves.
I say we grant them conditional citizenship providing:
1. All other illegals since 1986 must leave the country first
2. They cannot have a criminal record
3. They cannot have a history of using welfare except for medical emergencies
4. They cannot vote in elections for at least 10 years
5. They do not get any favoritism for having their relatives come to the USA
:... I am [more worried about] the 20 million or more who poured in over the last 4 years.”
I agree. The thing is that the smart DACAs have applied for USA citizenship and are well into the waiting period. Those folks we will welcome for the most part. It is the dumb ones that are sitting around collecting some form of welfare and worrying that they may soon be back South. Tuff Taco Time coming soon hopefully.
This DACA garbage is like a case of Herpes.
Send every one of them back to the crap hole from which they emerged.
They have had a decade since Obama’s letter to apply for citizenship.
Ha ha ha! Of course they're not going to be shipped out of the country!
“I say we grant them conditional citizenship providing:”
No.
Deport the LEECHES
Kick every damned one of them out of the country. They are not “in the shadows” living in fear. They are freeloading ungrateful punks that need deported. I don’t care when their criminal parents smuggled them, illegally, in to the country. If my dad was a bank robber I wouldn’t get to keep the loot.
DACA was the most unethical and illegal thing the kenyan did. How can the president give millions of illegal invaders a card saying you are allowed to break the laws that say you cannot live or work here.?
The constitution says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
DACA was much much worse than selective enforcement. The kenyan was PRO-ACTIVE and actually gave them a card saying they can stay!!!
To be fair, there is no legal mechanism for a DACA recipient to change to another status that I am aware of.
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