New DACA Applications

by | Jul 19, 2020 | Immigration

A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to begin accepting new DACA applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children from deportation. This not only allows DACA renewals in the program to continue, but clears the way for new applicants to apply to the program.

Judge Paul Grimm of the US District Court for the District of Maryland said that the program is to be restored to its “pre-September 5, 2017 status,” meaning the status quo before President Donald Trump tried to terminate it, thereby giving hundreds of thousands of DACA-eligible immigrants the opportunity to apply.

The District Court for the District of Maryland, hereby ORDERED that:

  1. The Court ADJUDGES AND DECLARES that the DACA rescission and actions taken by Defendants to rescind the DACA policy are arbitrary and capricious, in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A);
  2. The rescission of the DACA policy is VACATED, and the policy is restored to its pre-September 5, 2017 status;
  3. Defendants and their agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with any of them, are ENJOINED from implementing or enforcing the DACA rescission and from taking any other action to rescind DACA that is not in compliance with applicable law;
  4. Plaintiff’s estoppel claim and request for an injunction as it pertains to DACA’s information-sharing policies are DENIED;
  5. Nonetheless, because this Order restores the DACA policy to its pre-September 5, 2017 status, the information-sharing polices announced on September 5, 2017 are VOID;
  6. Under the doctrine of constitutional avoidance, and given that the information sharing policies announced on September 5, 2017 are void, this Court does not address Plaintiffs’ constitutional claims and those claims are DISMISSED;
  7. The Clerk SHALL CLOSE this case.

Entire United States Order regarding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) policy.

“This means that the administration not only must continue protections for current recipients, but that that it must also accept new applications,” said Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “Ignoring this decision puts the administration directly at odds with the rule of law, and leaves DREAMers steeped in even more uncertainty about their futures.”

To be eligible, applicants had to have arrived in the US before age 16 and have lived there since June 15, 2007. They could not have been older than 30 when the Department of Homeland Security enacted the policy in 2012. Please contact the experienced deferred action attorney’s at Brandt Immigration who will discuss your particular situation and assist with the filing of a new DACA application on your behalf.