Judge Vacates Trump's 2017 Decision To Rescind DACA
- New York 04/25/2018 by Linda Perry (WBAI)


DACA recipient Martin Batalla with Marielena Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America
The Trump Administration must resume DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That's the ruling by Federal Judge John Bates, who said in revoking DACA the government presented "scant legal reasoning" on an action that is "unlawful and must be set aside."

According to Bates, the DHS, Department of Homeland Security’s decision to rescind DACA "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." DHS now has ninety days to restate arguments and show why in its view it is unlawful.

Meanwhile, the government has been instructed to proceed with DACA renewals and the Court opened the door for DHS to accept new DACA applications. It said plaintiffs are seeking permanent injunctive relief which would stop government efforts to rescind DACA. "And the relief they seek would reach new as well as renewal DACA applications." If the government fails to prove its case in three months, it will be forced to accept new applications. 

Here is the court order. 

Immigration reform advocates say this is a big win for Dreamers, their families, and communities. Martin Batalla, member of Make the Road New York and DACA recipient, said, 
“This is a major victory for Dreamers like me. We have been under attack by this xenophobic administration over the last 2 years. DACA has allowed me the opportunity to travel abroad, go back to college and the ability to provide for my family. I am happy that the courts for the third time have sided with us in agreeing that Trump ending DACA was unlawful. The Trump Administration has 90 days to respond to the ruling, which could potentially open the doors for hundreds of youth who were left out of being able to apply for DACA to apply for the first time. As Congress continues to play with our lives, this is one of the best decisions a judge could have made. And we will continue to say to Congress: the time to act and pass a permanent solution, the clean Dream Act, is now.”