Judge orders Trump administration to fully restore DACA program

A federal judge Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore an Obama-era program designed to shield young immigrants living in the country without legal permission from deportation, dealing what could be a final blow to President Donald Trump’s long-fought effort to end the protections.

The program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was created by President Barack Obama in 2012. Over the years, it has protected more than 800,000 individuals who met a series of strict requirements for eligibility.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn directed the administration to allow newly eligible immigrants to file new applications for protection under the program, reversing a memorandum issued in the summer by Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, which restricted the program to people who were already enrolled. As many as 300,000 new applicants could now be eligible, according to the lawyers who pushed for the reinstatement.

The memo from the Department of Homeland Security also limited benefits under the program, including permits to work, to one year, but the judge on Friday ordered the government to restore them to a full two years. Garaufis, who was appointed by President Bill

Clinton, also said the government must find a way to contact all immigrants who are eligible for the program to inform them of the change.

The program still faces other challenges, including a case in federal court in Texas.

President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to restore the DACA program when he takes office next month, but a legislative solution that would permanently allow such immigrants to live and work legally in the U.S. is elusive, leaving their fates to the political winds.

Still, the ruling is a significant legal setback to Trump’s years-long attempt to make good on his promise to terminate the program, which applies to immigrants living in the country without legal permission who were brought to the United States as young children and have lived in America most of their lives.

As a candidate, Trump insisted that the program, which Obama put in place through executive action, was unconstitutional, and moved to end it in September 2017. The legal battle culminated in a Supreme Court ruling this summer in which the justices said the president had not followed the proper procedures to end the program.

In the wake of that ruling, Wolf only partially reinstated the program. But in November, Garaufis determined that was invalid because it had been issued via memo by Wolf, who Garaufis found had been unlawfully appointed.