Judge: Citations to end DACA flawed

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration didn’t offer “legally adequate reasons” for ending a program that spared many illegal aliens from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. as children.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said in an order issued Tuesday that the Republican president “indisputably” has the power to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program but relied on flawed legal positions in doing so.

Garaufis said he wanted to make clear that he was not ruling that rescinding the deferred-action program is unlawful or that the administration may not end the program. And he said his order does not require the government to grant any particular program applications or renewal requests.

The ruling, which mirrors one issued in San Francisco in January, came in lawsuits filed by immigration groups and 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has said then-President Barack Obama’s decision to implement the program was an unconstitutional exercise of authority.

In his ruling, Garaufis called that belief, “erroneous.” The judge ordered the administration to allow people already in the deferred-action program to continue enjoying protections. He declined to extend the program for new applicants.