On April 24, a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington, D.C. wrote that the decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, “was unlawful and must be set aside.”
DACA allowed immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to stay and work legally under renewable permits. President Donald Trump announced last year that he would end the program started by President Barack Obama. It was officially rescinded in March, but DHS is continuing to issue renewals because of previous court orders.
Bates wrote that Department of Homeland Security’s decision “was predicated primarily on its legal judgment that the program was unlawful. That legal judgment was virtually unexplained, however, and so it cannot support the agency’s decision.”
Bates gave the administration 90 days to justify scrapping DACA. He is the third judge to rule against administration plans to end the program.
In previous legal setbacks, Trump has taken to Twitter to express his displeasure with judges meddling with his policies. At times he has attacked judges personally, calling one jurist who ruled against his first travel-ban order a “so-called judge.”
But an attack on Judge Bates will be hard to sustain — he was appointed to his seat by George W. Bush in 2001 and, from 1995 to 1997, served under Kenneth Starr in the investigation that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment. He is no leftie. But he pulled no punches in an opinion that is sure to enrage a president who rankles at judicial oversight.
Call your Congress members and demand that they enact a permanent solution to protect Dreamers, their families and communities.