In a blow to the efforts of outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday against his attempt to safeguard immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The court sided with Texas, delivering this verdict just days before Republican President-elect Donald Trump assumes office.
The 2023 ruling, made by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was largely upheld.
The regulation implemented by the Biden administration to strengthen the DACA program was found to have not fully addressed its legal shortcomings. However, the ruling on the regulation’s limitations was limited to the state of Texas.
According to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the program for undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” provides deportation relief and work permits to a total of 537,000 individuals. The appeals court has maintained the stay, which allows current DACA enrollees to maintain their quasi-legal status while the litigation continues.
Trump is set to launch an extensive crackdown on immigration once he assumes office on Monday. His objective is to deport an unprecedented number of immigrants residing in the United States illegally. During his presidential term from 2017 to 2021, the Republican president-elect made efforts to terminate the DACA program.
In a December interview, Trump stated that he was appointed by the Supreme Court.
Democrats are working diligently to protect Dreamers.
In 2022, Biden implemented a regulation with the intention of strengthening the legal position of the DACA program. However, this regulation faced opposition from Texas and a coalition of states led by Republican attorneys general. These states claimed that DACA imposed additional healthcare and education expenses on their respective states.
Democrats and immigration advocates argue that DACA enrollees arrived in the U.S. through no fault of their own and have since become law-abiding and productive members of American society.
According to data from USCIS, the majority of DACA enrollees, around 81 percent, were of Mexican descent. Additionally, there were significant numbers of enrollees from countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
