Federal Judge Again Declares DACA Program Unlawful, But Allows It To Continue Anyway!

In what the far-left open border activists must consider as a major success of President Barack Obama’s administration’s 8 years in the White House, to me the manipulation and direct assault on the US Constitution by the globalist Obama is criminal.

The Constitution delegates to Congress the power “[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, … throughout the United States.” Thus, the Constitution gives Congress, (not the President) the power to determine which foreigners can become citizens, and under what conditions.

After insisting that he could not just write immigration law to set in place a pathway to citizenship and protections against deportation for children brought over the border illegally by their parents, Obama went ahead and did it anyway, forcing the courts to deal with expected legal actions challenging his actions.

NPR reported on August 20th, 2014.

After six years of often bitter back-and-forth with congressional Republicans over the issue of immigration, President Obama announced he has decided to go it alone by temporarily shielding up to 5 million immigrants from being deported.

In a prime-time speech to the country on Thursday, Obama said he would defer the deportation of the parents of children who are either U.S. citizens or legal residents, and that he also would expand that protection to more “DREAMers,” or children who entered the country illegally with their parents. Those two groups also will be allowed to work in the United States legally, after passing a background check and paying a fee.

On Wednesday, a federal judge declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that a Biden administration effort to codify the DACA policy into a federal regulation was unlawful.

Hanen, who was named to the bench by former Republican President George W. Bush, issued a similar ruling in 2021 when he found that the original Obama administration memo that created DACA in 2012 was illegal.

This decision was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022.

The Biden administration then re-tooled its approach by announcing the renewal of the DACA program in August 2022, making it a federal regulation. It came into effect in October, subject to public comments in a formal rule-making process, replacing former President Barack Obama’s 2012 memo that initially established DACA.

DACA provides hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children with a two-year renewable shield from deportation.

An estimated 800,000 individuals are believed to be DACA recipients, with two-thirds of those enrolled in the program thought to be aged between 21 to 30, having lived and worked in the United States for most of their lives after illegally entering as young children.

The Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to terminate DACA in the fall of 2017. But the policy was kept alive by federal courts, including the Supreme Court, which in 2020 ruled that the Trump administration had not properly rescinded the program.

“The remaining provisions of the original injunction are to remain in place and are to be applicable to Final Rule DACA,” Judge Hanen wrote.

The ruling blocks the federal government from accepting new DACA applications but maintains the program for existing recipients during the appeals process. The ruling does not mandate immediate action against current DACA beneficiaries.

Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia AG’s filed the lawsuit.

Their main argument is the Obama administration exceeded its authority by creating DACA in 2012, in effect writing immigration laws, bypassing Congress. In addition, they argue that President Joe Biden also overstepped his authority when he renewed it in 2022, also bypassing Congress.

Judge Hanen agreed, maintaining in his ruling on Wednesday that the revised version of DACA is unconstitutional and that the policy should come from Congress.

The DACA program has been overseen for the last decade by a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memorandum that established it under President Obama who described the action as a “temporary, stopgap, measure.”

The states also asked the court to phase out the program over two years, calling the Biden administration’s revised version “substantively unlawful” for the same reasons as the original Obama-era DACA Memorandum.

“The Court should declare it unlawful and unconstitutional, vacate it in its entirety, and permanently enjoin its implementation (with a prudent transition for existing DACA recipients),” their lawsuit, filed earlier this year, stated.

The plaintiff states in the case also contend that they bear substantial costs, including hundreds of millions of dollars for health care and education, when immigrants are allowed to remain in the country without legal status.

The judge’s ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.