In another victory for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and their allies, a New York judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking Donald Trump’s September 2017 decision to end the program. On the heels of a recent California decision, the National Immigration Law Center notes that “two federal courts have now determined that Donald Trump’s termination of DACA was unlawful”:
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, cannot end in March as planned, a victory for state attorneys general and immigrants who sued the Republican administration. The decision is similar to an earlier ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco that DACA must remain in place while litigation over Trump’s decision unfolds.
In a series of tweets, NILC attorney Josh Rosenthal wrote that “this order says that anyone who had DACA in the past must be allowed to apply for DACA on the terms that were in effect before the Sept. 5 announcement,” but it still excludes new participants from the program, meaning many undocumented youth will continue to remain at risk of falling into the grip of Trump’s mass deportation force.
While this court victory is a credit to fearless immigrant youth and allies, it also highlights the ongoing and urgent need for Republican Senate and House leaders to allow a vote on permanent protections for DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrant youth in the form of the DREAM Act—minus Stephen Miller’s white supremacist immigration wish list—and now.
