Update on DACA August 2018

On Friday, 3 August 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia affirmed its prior ruling that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Administrative Procedure Act by rescinding the DACA program (from September 2017). This court had previous required the Homeland explain the cancellation of DACA and had given the Administration multiple opportunities to justify their policy. Yesterday's court decision demonstrated the Administration does not have a legal stand to cancel DACA.

This decision clarified that new eligible students may apply for new DACA status.

Creative Commons Flickr @NOWCastSA

To be clear, U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., said he would stay Friday’s order, however, until August 23 to give the Administration time to decide whether to appeal.

For more information, see United We Dream (a collaboration with American Federation of Teachers) press release and resources for DACA applications.

“This represents a powerful victory against attempts to dehumanize immigrants who are law-abiding and productive residents of the United States and who were long ago brought to this country as children through no fault of their own,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.

The NAACP, the United Commercial Food Workers, and the American Federation of Teachers cojoined to appeal. We rely on the NAACP for updates here, as the AFT website is not updated.

Texas Appeal

Two other federal courts in California and New York had previously ordered that DACA remain in place while litigation challenging Trump’s decision to end it continued. Those rulings only required the government to process DACA renewals, not new applications.

Another lawsuit in a Texas federal court is seeking to end DACA. A court in Texas will hear the state’s request for an injunction blocking DACA on August 8, 2018. Although it is unlikely, there is a slim possibility that the Texas court would issue a ruling that same day. It is more likely that we’ll hear the court’s decision after August 8. More info at the Texas Tribune.

Read the Decision

As union members and as citizens, we should become more familiar with a legal decision. The D.C. Court's decision is straightforward and interestingly rationalized on the both fallacious arguments of the Administration. The decision can be read here.