Appeals court again finds DACA illegal but continues immigration policy

Washington — A federal appeals court on Friday ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy illegal, casting a cloud of uncertainty over the more than half a million unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

A panel of judges on the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the Biden administration’s DACA codification rule violated US immigration law. Federal courts have also struck down the Obama administration’s 2012 memorandum that originally created the policy as illegal.

However, Friday’s decision will not immediately change the status quo. In suspending its order, the panel of judges preserved DACA for current recipients and closed it to new applicants as the program has been in place for the past several years.

For more than 12 years, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who crossed the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as minors to live and work in the U.S. without fear of deportation. They are colloquially known as “Dreamers,” a nickname derived from the Dream Act, a bipartisan effort to legalize them that Congress has considered but failed to pass for more than two decades.

Although it upheld a lower court ruling that overturned the Biden administration’s DACA order, the 5th Circuit panel narrowed the ruling’s effect, making it applicable only in Texas, the state leading the lawsuit against the Republican-led program. The commission has put its decision on hold as it applies to current DACA beneficiaries, pending another decision from the 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court allowing renewals to continue.

The panel also ruled that the deportation deferrals offered by DACA can be legally separated from the work permits that beneficiaries receive, giving the Biden administration a partial victory in its argument that deportation protections should remain intact if the work permit provisions will be cancelled.

As of the end of September 2024, approximately 538,000 immigrants were enrolled in DACA, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Servicesthe agency that oversees the initiative. To qualify for the policy, applicants had to prove that they arrived in the US before their 16th birthday and before June 2007; graduated from an American high school or enlisted in the military; and had no serious criminal record.

Friday’s ruling could pave the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally settle the years-long legal battle over DACA. But it’s unclear how the new Trump administration will handle the case and whether it will seek to end the program. While President Biden’s Justice Department vigorously defended DACA in court, the first Trump administration sought to phase out the policy, arguing that it was illegal. Supreme Court in 2020 prevented the termination of DACA for technical reasons.

Spokesmen for the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s transition team also did not immediately say how the new administration would approach DACA. Trump and his advisers have vowed to launch a broad crackdown on illegal and legal immigration, vowing to control mass deportations of those living in the US illegally, impose tighter border controls and reduce legal admissions of immigrants and refugees.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the 5th Circuit’s decision “a victory for Texas.”

“I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to restore the rule of law and finally end the illegal immigration crisis,” Paxton said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Grace Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, a progressive group that advocates on behalf of DACA beneficiaries, denounced the court’s decision as an “attack” on “young immigrants.”

Camilo Montoya-Galves

Camilo Montoya-Galves is an immigration reporter for CBS News. While in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.