A third federal judge on Tuesday ruled against the Trump administration’s campaign to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for young immigrants living in the country illegally, ordering the administration not only to continue processing applications but also to resume accepting new ones.
U.S. District Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia was withering in his 60-page ruling, calling the administration’s attempts to end the program “arbitrary,” “capricious,” “virtually unexplained” and “unlawful.”
Bates stayed the ruling for 90 days to give the Department of Homeland Security time to come up with better arguments for scrapping the program, known as DACA. If it doesn’t, he wrote, he will enter an order reinstating DACA in its entirety.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the judge’s ruling “wrong” on Wednesday, and said it was “good news for smuggling organizations and criminal networks.”
DACA allows the children of immigrants who were under 16 when their parents brought them into the country illegally, and if they arrived by 2007, to remain in the United States without fear of deportation. Those given DACA status must renew it every two years.
The Trump administration had sought to phase out the program starting last month, but two previous federal rulings stalled its efforts. Neither of those rulings — by judges in New York and San Francisco — ordered the government to resume accepting new applications for protection under DACA, making Bates’ ruling the strongest so far.
To read the complete story: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-reform/third-federal-judge-issues-strongest-order-yet-backing-daca-n868866?cid=eml_nbn_20180424
