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DACA Will Not Be Canceled

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18 views3 pages

DACA Will Not Be Canceled

Uploaded by

Naveed Shah
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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https://www.passage.

law/blog/supreme-court-rules-daca-will-not-be-canceled

DACA Will Not Be Canceled (For Now)

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program cannot be ended at this time.

Recipients and supporters of the DACA program received exciting news today. The US Supreme
Court ruled DACA cannot be ended by the Trump administration in the immediate future. While
the longer-term future of this program is still uncertain, this is a win for “dreamers” and their
advocates. The full supreme court opinion can be accessed here.

DACA recipients have been in a state of limbo since 2017.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program initiated by the Obama administration,
protects about 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from being deported, allowing them
to work and attend school in the U.S. with legal authorization. For the last three years, those
with DACA status have been in a state of limbo, as the Trump administration’s September 2017
announcement of intent to end the program would leave many young undocumented
Americans with no protection from deportation and no path to citizenship. Since then, current
DACA recipients have been able to apply to renew their status, and have been encouraged by
attorneys to do so early in case of program termination, but no new applications have been
accepted.

The ruling creates an opportunity for additional challenges to the program.

The court ruled 5-4 on the issue, with liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor,
Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer being joined in the majority opinion by Chief Justice John
Roberts. The court’s logic for blocking the termination of the program is that the Trump
administration has not provided a sufficient explanation for the reasoning behind ending the
program; they did not actually evaluate whether or not DACA itself is a sound and legal policy.
While this is an exciting win, the court does leave an opening for the Trump administration to
potentially craft sufficient justifications for ending the program and make a second attempt to
terminate it, which could be upheld by the court in the future. With only months left before the
presidential election, DACA proponents hope that President Trump will not see a second term,
leaving little time for a potential second attempt to be successful.

What does this mean for you as a DACA recipient?


The future of DACA remains uncertain, but this ruling is a hopeful sign which buys some time
and provides meaningful temporary relief for current recipients. For now, DACA is still only a
temporary program, not a permanent policy, but politicians such as Representative Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York are already advocating for taking the next step by passing
permanent legislation to support DACA. According to various public opinion polls (Pew, New
York Times), the majority of the general public believes that the DACA program should remain
in place.

DACA Renewal
On Wednesday, the Biden administration released the final version of a rule to fortify and
codify the DACA program.

The rule, published on August 30, 2022 in the Federal Register, maintains the DACA program as
it was created in 2012 by an Obama-era memo. To be eligible for DACA, a person must have
entered the U.S. before turning 16, were not yet 31 years old on June 15, 2012, have lived in
the U.S. continuously since June 15, 2007, have either completed high school or received a GED,
been honorably discharged from the U.S. armed forces, or be enrolled in school, and have no
serious misdemeanors or felony on their record.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received over 16,000 public comments on the
proposed rule that was released in September 2021. A lot of these comments urged the DHS,
who proposed the new rule, to move the required entry date into the USA forward so
that younger individuals who are otherwise eligible for DACA could apply for the program.
However, the new rule follows the requirement that the applicant have entered the U.S. and
resided continuously since June 15, 2007.

In a change from the rule proposed in 2021, the final rule did not follow through with a plan to
“decouple” work authorization, or the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) application,
filed on Form I-765, from the principal DACA application, filed on Form I-821D. The 2012 DACA
program required that the application be filed at the same time as the work authorization
application; immigration lawyers worried that making the application for work authorization
optional would put DACA applicants at risk of losing work permits while waiting for the USCIS
EAD backlog to clear.

Regarding ineligibility criteria, the final DACA rule also states that “expunged convictions,
juvenile delinquency adjudications, and immigration-related offenses characterized as felonies
or misdemeanors under State laws” will not make someone ineligible automatically for DACA.

The rule also states that work authorization obtained through DACA ends only when someone’s
DACA status is declined, but not merely if deportation proceedings are started.
The DACA program, despite the release of the new rule, remains in legal peril at the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court in New Orleans, Louisiana heard oral arguments in
early July in response to a ruling by a federal judge in Texas calling DACA unlawful and excluding
new applicants from the program in July 2021.

Conditions must be met to request a DACA renewal

USCIS recommends DACA recipients submit their renewal requests between 120 and 150 days
before their current DACA expires. To request a DACA renewal, the following conditions must
be met:

 Applicant resided in the United States continuously since submitting their most recent
approved DACA request
 Applicant did not left the United States on or after Aug. 15, 2012, without a valid travel
document (Form I-131)
 Applicant has not been convicted of a felony, three or more misdemeanors, or a serious
misdemeanor, and does not pose a threat to national security or public safety

Can I now apply for DACA as a new applicant?

As mentioned above, we definitely encourage existing DACA holders to renew their status. As
for whether or not new applicants will be able to apply for DACA, at the moment this is still
unclear. Many legal experts argue that new applicants should be able to apply immediately
following the court decision, but United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS)
Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow made a statement demonstrating his clear opposition
to the ruling, and as of today there has been no official announcement from the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) about accepting new applications. We encourage hopeful applicants
to stay tuned.

Contact with us!

Passage Immigration Law is a specialist immigration law firm with over years of experience
dealing with immigration applications. We proudly represent DACA recipients and their
families. Whether you’re a current DACA recipient or you hope to apply for the program, get in
touch with us to discuss how this Supreme Court decision affects your immigration status. To
discuss your situation with a legal team you can trust, contact us at (503) 427-8243 or you may
schedule a consultation here.

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