Donald Trump took office promising to stop almost all immigration to the country.
Washington:
A judge on Saturday dismissed the White House’s limitations on a program protecting 700,000 so-called “dreamers,” undocumented migrants brought to the United States as children.
The New York federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was not legally performing his duties when he released the new DACA program rules in July.
The ruling is another victory for supporters of the Barack Obama-era program after the U.S. Supreme Court in June rejected Trump’s overturn.
President-elect Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the November 3 polls, pledged to reinstate the program when he took office on January 20.
Wolf, who has not been confirmed in his role by the US Senate, issued further restrictions on the program in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
Saturday’s court ruling said its restrictions “effectively suspend” DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, while the Trump administration considers how to proceed.
Wolf’s rules stipulated that new applications would not be accepted and that renewals would be limited to one year instead of two.
They are now invalid because “the court finds that Mr. Wolf did not legally hold the post of Acting Homeland Security Secretary under the Homeland Security Act” when he issued them, according to the ruling.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the correct order of succession was not followed for the appointment of the acting secretary.
This was not the first time Wolf has seen the legality of his appointment as interim secretary in 2019 questioned.
Trump took office promising to stop almost all immigration and deport the more than an estimated 10 million people living in the country, many for decades, without legal immigration papers.
The Obama administration sought to address the issue in 2012, with the DACA policy offering protection over renewable two-year periods, including permission to work, to people brought to the United States illegally as children, and then growing up here.
The DACA and the subsequent DAPA program – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents – were Obama’s executive actions aimed at eliminating the constant threat of deportation for more than four million undocumented migrants.
Trump quashed DAPA right after coming to power, then attacked the more established DACA, but immediately faced a series of court battles over it.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
