Much of the Trump administration’s run in office has been consumed with undoing legislature passed by former President Barack Obama. One of the many pieces of legislature that the administration is looking to undo is the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program or DACA. The program acts as a way to protect undocumented immigrants that were brought to the United States as children from being deported and separated from their families. In 2017, the Trump administration made its first move to end DACA, but ultimately failed. After giving Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, a second attempt at justifying her administration’s plan to end the DACA program, Judge Bates has ruled that the Trump administration is not justified in their plan to end the program.
In levying his decision, the U.S. District Court Judge stated, “The court has already once given DHS the opportunity to remedy these deficiencies — either by providing a coherent explanation of its legal opinion or by reissuing its decision for bonafide policy reasons that would preclude judicial review — so it will not do so again.” Bates also added, “The court simply holds that if DHS wishes to rescind the program — or to take any other action, for that matter — it must give a rational explanation for its decision. A conclusory assertion that a prior policy is illegal, accompanied by a hodgepodge of illogical or post hoc policy assertions, simply will not do.”
Katie Waldman of Homeland Security also responded to the Judge’s ruling by saying, “The DACA program that is hanging on due to court injunctions only provides protection for two years at a time and could end at any moment.” With this statement, it is clear that the Trump administration will continue to pursue the matter.
