Trump’s scrapping of DACA program blocked by San Francisco judge
SAN FRANCISCO — Children of undocumented immigrants facing deportation won a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s decision to end the so-called Dreamer program in March.
U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup in San Francisco on Tuesday rejected the government’s argument that the courts don’t have the authority to review whether the president improperly decided to terminate the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, that was started by former President Barack Obama.
Alsup’s ruling applies to a collection of lawsuits brought by California, the University of California, local governments in Silicon Valley, a labor union and various individuals. The technology industry has been especially vocal condemning President Donald Trump’s decision.
The challengers claim the president’s abrupt decision to end the program violated a federal legal requirement for “reasoned decision-making.”
The phasing out of DACA is “creating grave harm, right now, as DACA recipients are deciding whether to stay in school, take the next step in their careers, or start families, and as their schools, employers, and communities prepare for the risk that nearly 700,000 people will become subject to removal from American life,” the immigrants argued in a court filing.
The government argued the case should be tossed because it was an unconstitutional exercise of authority. That’s how U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions described DACA when he announced on Sept. 5 that the administration would rescind it and gave affected immigrants another month to reapply for their permits. The program is set to formally end on March 5.
The Trump administration defended its “orderly winddown” of DACA in a court filing, saying that the program “from the start conferred no rights and was revocable at any time.”
The case is Regents of University of California v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 17-cv-05211, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).