Lifeline for youth at risk of US expulsion

SAN DIEGO: A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration must resume a programme shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation, but gave it 90 days to restate its arguments before his order takes effect.

The ruling by US District Judge John D Bates in Washington – if it survives the 90-day reprieve – would be a new setback for the administration because it would require the administration to accept requests from first-time applicants for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme. Two nationwide injunctions earlier this year applied only to renewal requests.

Judge Bates said the administration’s decision to Daca, announced in September, relied on “meagre legal reasoning”. He invited the Department of Homeland Security to try again, “this time providing a fuller explanation for the determination that the programme lacks statutory and constitutional authority”.

The judge, ruling in favour of Princeton University and the NAACP, said the administration’s explanation was “particularly egregious” because it didn’t mention that many of the hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries had obtained jobs and pursued education based on the assumption that they would be allowed to renew.

The administration said in September that it would phase out Daca over six months, calling the programme started in 2012 an abuse of executive power. It said it was forced to act as Texas and other states threatened to sue, raising the prospect of a chaotic end to it.

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said he was “delighted”.

“While the decision does not fully resolve the uncertainty facing Daca beneficiaries, it unequivocally rejects the rationale the government has offered for ending the programme and makes clear that the (Department of Homeland Security) acted arbitrarily and capriciously.”

Nearly 690 000 people were enrolled when the Trump administration said in September it was ending the programme, eight out of 10 from Mexico. To qualify, they needed to have arrived before their 16th birthday, been under 31 in June 2012, completed high school or served in the military, and have clean criminal records. The two-year-permits are subject to renewal.